


my co-pilot’s blind side

by celestexists



Series: all of these stars will guide us home [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Beach fic, Established Relationship, Family Feels, Feelings, Filipino Lance (Voltron), Karaoke, M/M, Meet the Family, Miscommunication, Original Character(s), Vietnamese Keith (Voltron), karaoke showdown, needless angst, the least beach fic there ever was
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-10-29 13:56:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 24,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17809235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestexists/pseuds/celestexists
Summary: Lance brings Keith to a family and friends get-together, where Lance gets to be even more of his loud and pretty self while Keith fends off the rest of the loud and pretty Macalinos.Or, my take on the upcoming beach trip briefly mentioned in it’s quite bizarre, and will remain this way.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mayerwien](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayerwien/gifts).
  * Inspired by [it's quite bizarre, and will remain this way](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7703221) by [mayerwien](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayerwien/pseuds/mayerwien). 



> For May. Because she wouldn’t write her beach fic sequel if I didn’t write my version first.

“I’m so stoked I can’t even,” Lance says as he changes out of his uniform. The words get muffled because his shirt gets stuck midway, but Keith seems to get an idea of what he said, based on his super judge-y stare.

“I know,” Keith says, sounding extremely burdened—which, rude. His overnight backpack is already slung over his shoulders. “You’ve said it a thousand times now.”

“I just can’t believe you’re coming with us!” Lance glances at Keith after stuffing his uniform in his knapsack. His boyfriend (fuck yeah _, his boyfriend_ ) is flushed from the summer heat, the slightest touch of pink on his cheeks. Lance can see a few strands of his hair at the end of his mullet sticking to his nape.

Sometimes, Lance just wants to lean over Keith and plant one right on him for no particular reason. Just because. It’s a constant itch at the back of his mind, but it gets worse in specific situations. When Keith ushers people into the lectures and seminars of the museum, his face serious and intent as he leads people to their seats while answering their questions about the topic or the guest speakers. Or when Keith shares the lunch he’s cooked with Lance, Hunk, and Pidge and he hunches his shoulders and smiles shyly when they say that, oh my God, of _course_ it’s good, Keith, this is amazing.

Or like now, when he’s staring at Lance with a raised eyebrow and a half smile. Hunk calls it Keith’s fond face. Pidge says it Keith’s-Stupid-For-Lance Look.

Whatever it is, Lance wants to kiss it off of _his boyfriend_. But he restrains himself and settles for grabbing Keith’s hand. “Come on, Pidge and Hunk are waiting outside.”

The Kiss Keith urge intensifies when Keith wraps his fingers around Lance’s. And Lance kind of wants to slap himself because he’s already been stealing kisses from Keith all day.

They both wave goodbye at Vincent, who is currently mopping the lobby. Vincent merely nods at them, but Lance can so see the small grin hiding at the corner of his lips. They technically still had to be at the museum until six in the evening, but the four of them had begged Coran and Allura to let them off early this Friday, _please_ , since it’s only a few weeks away until school starts and they haven’t even had a legit summer vacation at the beach yet. Coran and Allura had all let them go with the condition to be extra early on Monday.

The air conditioner in the museum kept the worst of the heat at bay, but the sweltering humidity greets them when they walk outside. Seriously, for all of people’s space adventures and new tech, somebody should have come up with ideas for cooling off the planet during the summer.

When Lance shares this, Keith just rolls his eyes. “I thought being a docent meant thinking of what’s environmentally safe for our planet? And weren’t you the one who almost popped a vein when you saw me not segregating trash properly?”

“Yeah but… centralized cooling pods, Keith!” Lance insists.

“If I didn’t know how good a volunteer you were, I’d say the program was completely wasted on you,” Keith says while shaking his head.

“Thanks, babe,” Lance grins. “Also, A+ for that backhanded compliment.”

Keith just turns even redder.

As expected, Hunk and Pidge are standing over the motorcycles near Red, with their overnight duffel bags slung over their shoulders. Pidge waves at them when she spots them.

“Took you guys long enough! We would’ve gone ahead to your house if we didn’t know we had to wait for you there, too,” she huffs at Lance and Keith.

Lance just shrugs sheepishly. Then he grins as an idea forms in his head. He nudges Hunk on the ribs. “Wanna bet that Red is faster than the bus? Winner gets to choose top or bottom bunk in the beach house.”

Keith’s protests of “hey now, don’t drag me and Red into this” are drowned out by Hunk’s exclamations of, “How is that a fair bet? Red can swoop and swerve wherever in the traffic. Plus, the bus has a lot of stops before we get to your house.”

Before Lance can even open his mouth to argue, Keith tightens his hold on Lance’s hand and drags him to Red. “I’ll take care of this lamebrain,” Keith says to Hunk and Pidge. “We’ll see you there.”

“We could have totally won,” Lance hisses even while Keith tugs him to the motorcycle. “You just prevented a glorious victory for Red, Keith. I can’t believe you!”

Keith rolls his eyes for the nth time and pops his helmet down Lance’s head. “Red is glorious even without any of your rigged bets.” He swings a leg over the bike and looks at Lance with a grin. “Hop on.”

Lance is almost thankful for the helmet over his head; it keeps him from grabbing Keith and kissing the life out of him. He seriously can’t take this much literal and figurative hotness right now. Lance hitches a leg over Red and takes the opportunity to wrap his arms around Keith’s waist. “Onward, my stalwart steed!”

Keith glances over his shoulder with the patented stupid-for-Lance look. “You just can’t shut up, can you.” And, of course, Keith gets the last word because he revs the engine and drives like a gago, as usual.

The first time Lance rode on the back of Red, he’d been scared of falling off his ass while Keith zoomed in and out of the streets at the speed of light. But once he got over his fear and just held on to Keith, it was _amazing._ Aside from the rush, Lance likes how he can press close to Keith and hold him tight, no questions asked. And Lance knows that Keith is cool with Lance being… Lance and all that that entails. But Lance doesn’t know when and where to draw the line sometimes, doesn’t know when the kissing and touching might be too much. And he doesn’t want to scare Keith away with all the PDA Lance is fully capable of unleashing.

So yeah, Lance fucking relishes riding with Keith on his motorcycle. He can excuse his octopus arms as a safety measure. Lance closes his eyes and lets the wind blow against his face, his fingers gripping the front of Keith’s shirt.

When Keith slows down and parks Red in the empty garage of Lance’s house, Lance stumbles off the bike and removes the helmet. Keith has a full-fledged blush from the afternoon sun. And Lance can see the microscopic satisfied smile playing on Keith’s lips as he runs his hand over his windswept mullet. Lance probably doesn’t have any right to judge but, god, is Keith an adrenaline junkie.

Lance can’t wait to see him pilot an actual spacecraft.

“Last one to the front door is a crumbly old asteroid!” He throws the helmet to Keith, who automatically catches it, and dashes out of the garage and to the front door.

It turns out to be an epic fail because Lance can’t stop laughing long enough to get his house key into the door and turn the lock. “You’re such a cheater,” Keith pants as he shoves Lance against the door.

Lance finally gives in and presses a kiss at the corner of Keith’s mouth. “I told you we’d be first,” he just says.

Keith huffs out a laugh, his breath softly fanning against Lance’s face. “And like Hunk told you, your bet wasn’t fair.” He nudges his chin at the key still in Lance’s hand. “Are you gonna let us in or not?”

Lance fumbles with the key again and gets it right this time. He steps inside the foyer and spreads his hands wide. “Mi casa es su casa,” he says with a grin.

Angel and Alliana had left their books and toys lying in the living room floor, as usual. Alliana’s space Barbie astronauts and mini spacecraft kitchen set were scattered around the coffee table, while a pile of sci-fi graphic novels were splayed across the sofa.

His grandparents had also left their bedroom door open, which is something they rarely ever do. Lance can see Lolo Tommy’s jacket hanging of Lola Adore’s rocking chair in the corner of the room. Lance used to be the one who slept in the bedroom in the first floor, but it’s been getting harder for his grandparents to walk up and down the stairs.

Lance shuts their door close and turns to the kitchen. As expected, Lola Adore forgot her glasses on the kitchen counter top. Lance grabs it and makes a note of giving it to her at the beach house.

His family probably left around after lunch, based on how spotless the kitchen and dining room is and how messy the rest of the house is. Everyone helped clean up the food and the dishes, but they were most likely in too much of a hurry to tidy up everything else.

Keith walks inside tentatively, looking around as if someone might jump up from the furniture and grab him. “Nothing’s gonna bite you here, babe,” Lance laughs.

Keith blushes but doesn’t say anything. He brushes past Lance determinedly and studies the shelves of books lined up on top the television screen. He glances at Lance. “These books are yours?”

“My _lola's_ and my sister’s,” Lance shrugs. “ _Lola_ Adore taught us to read from real paper, not digital screens. And one of my sisters turned out to be a bookworm, so they read a lot.” He curls his fingers around Keith’s and leads him upstairs. “C’mon, I haven’t even finished packing!

Lance lunges up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. Keith hangs back, so stubbornly immovable even when Lance tries to drag him forward. Keith stares at the sepia-toned pictures hanging on the walls along the staircase. “Your grandparents’?”

Lance finally stops pulling and steps down to stand beside Keith. “Yeah, pictures from when they were young.” Lance points to a photo of a couple who had their arms around a young woman holding a baby boy. All of them were laughing in the picture, even the kid. “Those are my grandparents. That’s my mom. And that baby right there is yours truly.”

Keith leans forward to the picture. “You were a cute baby.”

Lance preens. “I know, right? Even then I was—”

“But what happened?” Keith shakes his head sadly. “Guess you outgrew the cuteness.”

“Hey!” Lance laughs and elbows Keith. “Are you done now? Can we go upstairs?”

Keith nods. “I like looking at old photos,” he says, running his fingers over the frame. “My grandparents have a stack of their own back home.”

Lance stops rushing forward again because he can sense this is Important Information. He presses against Keith until their shoulders touch. “Did you keep a few for yourself? My grandparents let me have a bunch under the condition I keep them safe.”

“Yeah,” Keith smiles while looking down, absently running his thumb along Lance’s knuckles. Lance not-so-absently notices and tries not to die. “They let me have a picture of my parents from their wedding.” Keith shrugs and Lance can see how he’s trying to downplay it. “I don’t know, they looked really beautiful.”

They’ve been standing on the staircase for more than ten minutes and Lance still hasn’t even packed his toothbrush yet, but right now all he can think of is finding the right thing to say to the boy he loves. “Can I see it some time?”

When Keith’s smile widens and meets Lance’s eyes, Lance barely holds in his sigh of relief.  “I’ll bring it on Monday,” Keith answers. Then Keith places his hand on Lance’s nape, pulls him down and kisses him firmly on the lips. Sometimes Lance forgets that he’s a few inches taller than Keith, his presence is so big, even when he’s quiet most of the time. Keith pulls back with a final nip on Lance’s lower lip, his eyes twinkling. “Let’s go, you still need to pack.”

Lance stares at Keith’s retreating back before stumbling after him. “You can’t just kiss me like that and— _Keith._ ”

But no, Keith ignores his plea for maybe a slightly longer make out session and opens Lance’s bedroom door instead, which is ostentatiously stickered with catchphrases in funky fonts, like “Lancelot’s Fortress”, “Keep Out”, and “Danger: Hazardous Waste.”  

“Oh my God,” Keith looks over his shoulder at Lance, his nose wrinkled. “Your room’s a fucking mess.”

Lance has posters of his favorite bands and space pilots taped to the walls, particularly above the bed and study table area. The closet has been left open, with clothes strewn all over the floor, the floorboards barely peeking through the surface. The study table is stacked with books and papers that surround the closed laptop in the middle.  

The bed is the only clean place, the sheets unwrinkled and the comforter neatly turned down with the pillows placed against the headboard. An open duffel bag sits on the foot of the bed, full of unfolded board shorts, shirts, and swimming trunks. On top of the bedside table is Lance’s charging tablet, which is surrounded knick knacks Lance has collected from the museum, mostly souvenirs from the gift shop he got for free since they were defective, like the _Blacklion_ Space Explorer magnet with the missing letter “c” in _Blacklion_ and the gold Space Cadet pin that was missing the actual pin.

Lance scoops up the clothes on the floor to make a clear path for him and Keith. “I couldn’t decide which to bring to the beach,” he shrugs.

Keith raises an eyebrow. “This is just an overnight, right.”

“Technically _two_ nights, counting tonight and tomorrow night,” Lance says. “Also, I need to look good twenty-four-seven, okay.”

Keith gingerly sits on the edge of Lance’s study table and shoulders off his backpack. “That’s going to be a challenge then,” he mutters.

“Hey!”

Keith stays silent as Lance unpacks and repacks his shit. He can’t decide between his red swimming trunks and his blue ones. Red or blue, red or blue…

“What’s this?”

Lance looks up from his bag. Keith is holding Lance’s review papers in his hands.

“Oh. Hunk and Pidge gave it to me so I can _review_ for the upcoming college exams. But I totally believe in the power of stock knowledge so I haven’t taken a look at it yet,” Lance grins. “I might skim it when I feel like it, though. Which, come to think of it, might be never.”

“Ah,” Keith murmurs and carefully sets down the papers on the table. “And you’re all applying for the International Space Academy.”

Lance stops playing with the zippers on his bag and tries to read Keith's expression. He knows that tone, that inflection. It’s Keith’s Mission Abort, Distance Yourself voice.

“Yeah,” Lance says cautiously. “And if we get in, we’ll definitely be waiting for you when it’s your turn to get accepted.” Because Keith deserves to be a space pilot, and because Lance can’t imagine exploring the universe without Keith and his two other best friends at his side.

Keith slides his hands inside his jean pockets. “Right.”

Lance feels his throat close up. He doesn’t know what Keith means by _that_ , but he knows that something’s not right. “Keith...”

“Lance!” Hunk bellows from below, the word punctuated by the door closing. “I’ve been calling your phone, you ass!”

“We’ve been standing at the door for more than ten minutes!” Pidge says, their voices getting closer as they walk upstairs.

Lance stays rooted to where he is, his eyes on Keith. But Keith’s already turned his stupid mullet head at the bedroom door. “Sorry guys, he’s been busy deciding which swim trunks to bring.” Keith says dryly. “Even though they look exactly the same.”

Thing is, if Lance hadn’t known something was happening just a few seconds ago, he’d think nothing was wrong. Lance clears his throat and looks at Hunk and Pidge, who were both sweating their faces off, their bags hanging from their shoulders. “At least you put the duplicate key to good use?” Lance tries to grin.

“You said it was for emergencies! I didn’t even _have_ to use it, Lance, if you had just answered your phone,” Hunk harrumphs, his eyebrows raised so high, they’ve disappeared under the bandana wrapped around his forehead.

“And really, Lance?” Pidge crosses her arms. “Hiding it under the carpet? Any amateur burglar would look there first.”

Lance steals another glance at Keith, who’s acting like nothing is wrong and is smirking as he usually does when Lance has done something stupid.

Well, if it’s going to be that way.

Lance takes a deep breath, zips his bag close, and leads them out of his bedroom, slinging an arm around both Pidge and Hunk—which is a bit of a challenge since Pidge is a foot shorter than him and Hunk is slightly taller than him. “Pidge, that’s what we _want_ them to think, lull them into a false sense of security, and then when they come in, they will get the fucking surprise of their lives when they see _Lolo_ Tommy with his longass knife..."

And on Lance goes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lola - grandmother  
> Lolo - grandfather


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk patiently deals with Lance Angst and the gang arrives at the beach house.

“So,” Hunk says, from the backseat.

The sun has long set, and the stars are up and out in the sky. They’d started out listening to the micro-chipped playlists embedded in the stereo, but since this was his older sister’s car, almost all of the music consisted of songs by girl bands. Which was fine, at first. But eventually it all started sounding the same, so they switched to the radio until they finally turned it off and proceeded to have their usual unusual conversations (e.g. is it better to be teethless or lipless, estimated date of when technology takes over the world, what Coran looks like without a mustache, etc).

Lance stops tapping his fingers on the wheel and looks up to meet Hunk’s eyes on the rear view mirror. “What.”

“What’s up with you and Keith?”

Lance frowns. “What do you mean?”

When Lance and Keith broke the news to Hunk and Pidge during lunch one afternoon in the museum—with Lance starting out with, “My dudes, Keith and I have Important News to share with you–” and Keith interrupting and just outright saying, “We’re together now” like he was commenting about the weather—their friends had just nodded slowly while looking confused.

“We... know?” Pidge said tentatively. “Was it supposed to be a secret? I mean, it was pretty obvious.”

“Lance, my bro,” Hunk said while shoveling down the goopy Mars-coni and cheese in his mouth. “You’ve always been really cuddly and stuff. But you have never, not once in the six years we’ve known each, kissed me on the lips. So yeah, we kinda got a clue from there.”

“But wait, was it supposed to be a secret?” Pidge asked again, but this time there was less confusion and more mischief in her face. “Because Lance does not know the meaning of the word _subtle_.”

Keith shrugged and finally sat down across them. “Yeah. He was so excited to tell you guys, he had a speech prepared,” he said, a tiny smirk on his face.

At which point, Lance had squawked and poked Keith on the ribs until he was laughing his stupid mullet off.

Hunk hums, pulling Lance out of his memories. “You guys have been acting weird lately.”

Lance bites his lips and glances at Keith, who is fast asleep at the passenger seat, his head lolling against the seat belt. They had changed into sweat-free summer outfits before leaving, at Lance's insistence. Keith was wearing a sleeveless red shirt and black shorts with white Hawaiian flowers. It was a little disconcerting.

And distracting. Lance couldn’t keep his eyes away from Keith’s arms for more than a few minutes. And of course, only his boyfriend could make shorts with a Hawaiian floral design look good.

Lance glances back up at the rear view mirror to see that Pidge is still leaning on Hunk’s shoulders, her eyes closed and her mouth slightly parted. He’s been driving for a solid three hours now, and they only had a few more miles before they reached the beach. But in between that time, Keith and Pidge had dozed off—which Lance and Hunk had greatly taken advantage of. They had pictures of the two sleeping suckers to last a lifetime of blackmail.

“I don’t know, Hunk,” Lance finally answers. “I thought it was just me who was feeling the… weirdness.” And it’s such a relief to finally hear that someone else has noticed, that it’s not just Lance being paranoid or over dramatic.

“Have you tried talking to him? Maybe you can ask him what’s up.”

“Yeah? And what would I say?” Lance clears his throat and says in a mockingly sweet voice, “‘Hey, Keith, why are you acting so weird and distant?’ That’ll go over— _ow!_ ” Lance rubs his ear where Hunk flicked his fingers. “The fuck was that for?”

“There’s a better way to ask, you dumbass,” Hunk says. “But what about you?”

“What do you mean?”

Hunk meets his eyes again at the rear view mirror, his eyebrow raised as if to say, _don’t even try to bullshit me._ “I know how you think, Lance. And I know you already have all these crazy and stupid theories why you and Keith have been off lately.”

Sometimes, it’s both relieving and annoying that Lance has someone who knows him so well. Right now, he just wants to park at the side of the highway and cry on Hunk’s shoulder about his relationship problems. And he’d probably do that, if half the problem wasn’t sitting across him, literally.

“The thing is,” Lance says, and he hears how quiet his voice is. “Most times we’re good, you know? He doesn’t even have to say anything—just… the way he looks at me. Like fire. Not the kind that’ll burn me up—but it defo feels that way when we’re making out—but the kind that keeps me warm.”

Hunk is quiet behind him, but Lance can feel the comforting curl of his fingers on his shoulder. “But there are just these moments when he pulls away and I don’t know...” Lance grips the wheel tighter. “What if it’s me?”

Hunk flicks his fingers at Lance’s ear again. “I think you should talk to him,” he says gently. And Lance has heard that tone of voice from Hunk a million times before. When Hunk is trying to talk Lance off a bad idea, or when he’s trying to point out why Lance is wrong, or when he’s reminding Lance that the world does not, in fact, revolve around Lance Macalino.

Lance exhales and nods. “Yeah, okay. Maybe after this trip. I don’t want to ruin this for him.”

“That’s my boy,” Hunk gives Lance a noogie with his huge-ass yeti knuckles, so Lance has no choice but to try and salvage his hair by elbowing Hunk while still keeping one hand on the wheel.

Keith and Pidge stir when the car behind them honks in alarm, after a tiny slight swerving incident that is not caused by Lance. At all.

Keith yawns and lifts his head. “We there yet?” He mumbles while rubbing his eyes. Pidge, meanwhile, just blinks at them sleepily. 

Hunk has settled back into his seat, trying and failing to smother his laughter, while Lance glares at him from the rearview mirror. “Yeah, we’re here.”

Keith abruptly sits up, looking more alert and awake than a second ago. Lance smiles and beeps the horn. Their property was the only one with a gate in front, since most of the buildings lined up along with their house were boutique hotels or small resorts.

A few seconds later, Ate Paulie opens the gate in a bikini top and denim shorts. His mom’s minivan is already inside, as expected, but there’s still enough space for Ate Paulie’s car. She grins when Lance opens his window to lean out and wave his hand.

“Will you just get in?” She shouts from the driveway.

Lance beeps the horn again in affirmative and flicks the headlights on and off at her, which, of course, annoys his big sister even more.

“Paulie?” Keith asks uncertainly.

“Also known as the bane of my existence, yeah,” Lance replies. Ate Paulie waves at the gang when they drive past her. Hunk and Pidge wave back excitedly.

“Don’t listen to him, Keith. _Ate_ Paulie is the best,” Hunk says.

Pidge snorts. “Yeah, she totally is. But Hunk is also biased ‘cause he’s had a crush on her for _forever_.”

Keith turns his head at the backseat, his smile wide. “Seriously?”

Hunk covers his red face with his hands. “No! I mean, yes. But it was in the _seventh_ _grade_ —”

“Which we also agreed never to talk about, please stop.” Lance mock shudders. When he finally parks the car, he shuts the engine off and opens the door. He can already smell the salt and brine of the sea and hear the waves crashing over the soft white sand ashore.

They’re all shouldering their bags from the car trunk when Ate Paulie finishes closing the gate and walks toward them, her long ponytail swinging with every step. “Hi, guys!” She says to Hunk, Pidge, and Keith. Then she turns to Lance with narrowed eyes. “Did you scratch my baby?”

Lance gives her a brief one-armed hug that his sister returns before Lance sweeps his hand dramatically to the red Honda. “As you can see, she is perfectly still intact,” he answers and ignores Hunk’s pointed coughing.

She purses her lips and studies her car for a few seconds before nodding. “Okay. Good. So,” she says with a smile. “How’s the museum?”

“Awesome!” Pidge immediately answers. “Allura’s added some cool new stuff and exhibits. You should drop by sometime.”

Ate Paulie nods. “Definitely. I’ll probably visit after I finish my summer classes next week.”

“ _Ate_ Paulie used to be a docent at the museum. And she’s taking classes this summer in college to finish some of her credits,” Lance explains to Keith, who is hanging off behind the three of them with wide eyes. Lance gently pulls him forward by the hand and glances at his sister, who is now staring at Keith with unabashed interest. “ _Ate_ Paulie, this is Keith,” he says meaningfully. “My boyfriend. Keith, this is my older sister,  _Ate_ Paulie.”

Her face doesn’t change, but Lance knows her well enough to recognize the look in her eyes. It's the realization of finally being able to place a face to all the stories Lance has told. “Oh,” she says. And in that word, Lance can hear her curiosity about the boy Lance has been talking about non-stop for weeks since Keith came to the museum to do community service; the boy Lance angsted over when he thought he was never going to see him again after Keith's service hours were up; the boy Lance went to Jollibee with in the wee hours of the morning because Lance wanted him to know what the second-best fried chicken after his mom’s tasted like; the boy Lance _still_ sighs over when Lance thinks about him.

Keith shuffles forward and brings up his right hand. “Nice to meet you,” he says politely. His face has that patented Keith Blank Mask, but Lance can see his cheeks and the tips of his ears getting red.

Ate Paulie shakes his right hand with a bemused smile. “Nice to meet you too, Keith,” she replies in her gentlest and most non-intimidating voice. Lance sees her squeeze Keith’s hand once before letting go. “Come inside, guys. Mom’s waiting for you,” she adds before turning away. And Lance wants to cry because he can only guess how much she’s restraining herself from interrogating Keith.

Lance immediately takes Keith’s cold hand and looks at him. “You okay?” He asks after Hunk and Pidge follow his sister.

Keith’s stone face cracks a little, and a small smile slips through. “Fine. Just nervous.” 

Lance squeezes Keith’s fingers. “Like I’ve told you a bajillion times, you’ve got nothing to be nervous about. They’ll love you.”

Keith shoots Lance a look that says he’s not convinced. “I don’t want to mess this up,” he admits.  

Lance shakes his head while trying to push down the lump in his throat. He hates that Keith feels anxious right now, but at the same time, he also appreciates how Keith is serious about getting his family's approval. “You won’t, babe,” Lance promises. “Now, c’mon.”

They walk along the brick path of the driveway, the towering palm trees along the gate swaying from the breeze. Their flip flops slap against the floorboards as they make their way inside the house. When he turns to Keith, he sees his boyfriend looking around the airy living room with curious, wide eyes.

“This looks a lot like your real house,” Keith says.

“That’s because this is also kind of our real house? My grandparents had it built when they were fairly young, before the beach became popular. The guest room’s on the ground floor, though.”

Keith glances around the ceiling-to-floor glass windows that pan across the living room and dining room. It’s definitely less cluttered, but it’s clear that the beach house has been made into a home, with framed family pictures hanging on the walls and standing on coffee tables and counter tops. The only difference of the pictures here from the ones in their city home is that majority of them were taken at the beach in their swimsuits. Woven baskets containing beach toys are tucked at the side of the television. The glass sliding door from the living room that connects to the outdoor pavilion is already lit by fluorescent lights. Lance can see his family and friends crowded around the table full of food.

Keith is also staring at them with even wider eyes now. Lance grins at him and tugs his hand. “C’mon, they haven’t spotted us yet. We can put our bags down first.”

They run down the end of the hall until they reach the guest room, which is right across the bathroom. Lance sees Pidge’s backpack and green laptop bag on the top bunk and Hunk’s yellow duffle bag on the bottom bunk. Lance gestures to the second, unclaimed double deck. “Which do you want?”

“I’m fine with any.”

“Okay, then.” Lance tries to hide his triumphant smile as he places his knapsack on the top. His younger sisters had the annoying habit of bursting in his room and waking him up with their screams. When he invites Hunk and Pidge over here in the beach house, they usually jump over the person left sleeping in the bottom bunk. Usually, it’s either Hunk or Lance who ends up sleeping at the bottom bunk, since they never seem to win against Pidge in rock-paper-scissors. It’s like she can read minds.

Lance is pretty sure that it’s only because of Hunk’s sense of fair play that Hunk didn’t take the other top bunk. Unlucky for Keith, since Lance doesn’t  believe in playing fair.

“Why do you have a stupid smile on your face.” Keith narrows his eyes at Lance suspiciously.

“Nothing,” Lance lies and bats his lashes at Keith, all the while failing to contain his grin. He wraps his hands around Keith’s exposed arms— _finally_ —and kisses those pouting lips.

Keith freezes for a second before going pliant and placing his arms around Lance’s neck. Lance reluctantly moves his hands down to Keith’s waist. “This isn’t going to distract me, you know,” Keith mumbles while moving his lips across Lance’s as he speaks.

Lance steps closer until he’s flush against Keith. His hands drag down from Keith’s waist to his ass and digs his fingernails there as he pulls Keith even tighter against him. Lance smiles against Keith’s lips as he feels a small shiver run through his boyfriend’s body. Keith winds his fingers in Lance’s hair, his eyes unfocused and his mouth hot as Lance tries to send him over the edge.

“You seem pretty distracted to me,” Lance murmurs and punctuates the sentence with a lick on Keith’s bottom lip.

When Keith pulls his head away, Lance starts leaving wet kisses on his pale throat. “ _Lance_ ,” Keith says. “We’re at your grandparents’ beach house!”

“I locked the door,” Lance says, but presses one last kiss under Keith’s jaw before letting him go.

Lance didn’t even mean for this to be a hot and heavy make out session. He just wanted to tease and, like Keith said, distract.

But maybe this is what happens when there’s too much pent up frustration.

Keith closes his eyes and tightens his hold on Lance’s hair for a moment before stepping back. When he opens his eyes again, the look Keith gives Lance is fierce and hot. It makes Lance want to pull him close again and suck on his tongue. “Later,” Keith murmurs. “After I meet your family.”

Lance clears his throat and shuffles back. “Yeah, of course.” He smiles weakly. “Sorry about that. Must be those raging hormones. Ha ha.”

Keith shakes his head. “Don’t be sorry. I like it,” he admits, even as his cheeks turn red. “Let’s just keep it cool until I’ve met everyone.”

“Right. Keep it PG in front of the fam. Got it.” Lance takes a deep breath and rubs his hands together. He leaps toward the door and opens it with a flourish. “Let’s do this!”

As he’d hoped, Keith smiles and rolls his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. The name of the “Mars-coni” dish is one of May’s discarded museum caf food that didn’t make it in it’s quite bizarre.  
> 2\. Ate - honorific for big sister


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith meets the rest of the Macalinos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I should say that this fic is the least beach fic there ever was? This is more feelings than beach, to be honest. haha

Lance sees Alliana running towards them as they walk out the hallway. She’s wearing a yellow summer dress with a print design of Little Mermaid in front, its hem darkened by wet sand and sea water. Her bare feet are in the same condition, and Lance is already dreading having to wipe the floors later, since he knows it's his turn to clean up the living room. She’s wearing so many loom bands that they cover both her wrists up to her forearms. There’s a smudge of spaghetti sauce around her mouth.

“ _Kuya_ , what took you so long!” She pouts at him, her braids swinging behind her shoulders. Up close, Lance can see the sunburn and peeling skin on Alliana’s cheeks and the bridge of her nose. She probably spent the whole afternoon at the beach. “Mom made me come get you.”

“Keith and I were just putting our bags down, relax,” Lance says and ruffles her immaculate hair—much to his sister’s yowling protests. He doesn’t understand how Alliana’s face, dress, and even _feet_ end up being dirty by the end of the day but her hairdo stays completely intact. “Keith, this is Alliana, the youngest and brattiest. Bumblebee, this is Keith. My boyfriend.”

Lance can see Alliana taking offense at being called the brattiest, but her attention is quickly grabbed by Keith crouching down in front of her and stretching out his hand, like he did with Ate Paulie. “Nice to meet you, Alliana,” Keith says seriously. “I like your loom bands.”

Alliana beams at him, missing teeth and all, and claps Keith’s hand, like a sideway version of a high-five. “Thanks!” She twirls away from them and skips back outside the pavilion.

Keith gets up and stares after Lance’s little sister. “So is Alliana a long nickname for her real first name?”

Lance laughs and holds Keith’s hand. “Oh, no. After Amy—whose real name is Amihan, by the way—we all begged our mom to please, please, have mercy and give this baby a relatively normal name.”

“But you all call her bumblebee?” He asks, tangling his fingers with Lance’s.

“Nah, that’s just me. I’m special that way.”

Keith huffs out a laugh and follows Lance to the living room. He looks less nervous than he did when they were in the driveway, but then again, Keith is better at containing his emotions than Lance is.

Lance has always liked the nipa hut design of the pavilion, with the bamboo pillars and carved benches that make up the right and left walls for the hut. The rustic wooden dining table at the center is covered with food. Though the pavilion is connected to the house, its roof is covered with nipa, with metal beams underneath for attaching the fluorescent lights and keeping the roof from flying away or being destroyed during the rainy season.

Lolo Tommy is sitting at the right bench corner closest to the sliding door. He’s holding his evening cup of coffee in one hand, while listening attentively to Alliana’s babbling. Lola Adore is on the other end of the bench near the sea. His grandmother is playing with Angel’s hair thoughtfully as Angel chatter on about the book she’s holding.

Amy, on the other hand, is crouched down the floor with Pidge, their heads bent together as they fiddle with the portable karaoke machine Pidge had built. Hunk, as expected, is talking to Ate Paulie about school, the museum, and who knows what. His mom is standing beside the table, scooping spaghetti and fried chicken on a plate.

They all look up when Lance opens the sliding door. And Lance could probably hear a pin drop from the momentary silence that falls in the room. Keith’s hand tightens spasmodically in Lance’s grip, but other than that, he makes no move.

“Hey, guys,” Lance says, waving his free hand. “This is Keith, my boyfriend. Keith, this is my family. My mom, Grandpa Tommy, and Grandma Adore. My sisters—you’ve already met Ate Paulie and Alliana. And that’s Amy and Angel,” Lance says, pointing to each of his sister.

“Hi everyone,” Keith says. “It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for letting me come, Mrs. Macalino.”

“Call me Aunt Analyn. And we’re glad to have you, Keith,” She says with a wide smile. His mom’s hair is pinned up in a ponytail and her pink blouse flutters as she walks towards them. She tilts her cheek up when Lance leans forward to give her a kiss.

While Lance quickly walks to his grandparents to give mano, pressing their hand gently to his forehead, his mom gives Keith the plate she’s been piling up with spaghetti and pats his shoulder. “It’s good you guys made it in time for dinner,” she says.

Pidge looks up from the karaoke machine and says, “That’s because he drove like a maniac, Aunt Analyn.”

“Maniac,” Alliana echoes from where she's now sitting next to Angel, in between their grandparents. And both of them giggle at the word like it's the funniest thing in the world, the little gremlins.

His mom turns to Lance with narrowed eyes. “Alejandro...”

“Ay, Alejandro,” Lolo Tommy says in a warning tone, as Lance lets go of his grandpa’s hand. “You need to be careful.”

“Don’t listen to them, _Lolo_. They’re all set on besmirching my name. And how would you even know, Pidgeon?” Lance directs at Pidge. “You were snoring the whole time!”

“That’s it.” Ate Paulie announces. “You are never allowed to touch my car, Lance.”

“Why can’t everyone see that Pidge is exaggerating?” Lance asks. “As usual!” he adds, for good measure.

Amy looks up with a mischievous grin. “No offence, _Kuya_ , but Pidge is more believable than you.”

Lance points at her accusingly. “Zip it, popstar. You’re just saying that because Pidge got you a karaoke machine.”

Amy just shrugs and flips her hair before turning back to said machine.

“We’re discussing this later,” His mom promises Lance. She turns back to Keith, her warm smile returning to her face. “All dangerous driving habits of my son aside, it’s good to finally meet you, Keith. Lance has been talking about you all summer.”

“Mom!” Lance can feel his face turning red. And when he glances at Keith, he can see a similar flush on Keith’s cheeks and the bridge of his nose.

“I’ve been excited to meet all of you, too,” Keith says quietly, his eyes meeting everyone’s face in the pavilion. “I feel like I know a little bit about everyone with all the stories Lance has told me.”

His mom’s face softens. “That’s good to hear,” she says. “Now, go eat! We’ll talk more later.”

They sit down next to Lolo Tommy, after Lance playfully scoots his two youngest sisters further to the side, since most of everyone has already sat down on the bench across them. Keith nods at Lance’s grandpa. “Good evening, sir.”

Lolo Tommy nods back. “Evening, Keith.”

Alliana takes this opportunity to jump from her seat and squish herself between Keith and Lance. “What’s _Kuya_ been telling about _me_?” She asks Keith in a demanding tone.

Keith looks at her and puts down his plastic fork. “Well. I remember him telling me that you’ve been crazy about loom bands for forever. That’s why I knew who you were the minute you walked in the living room.”

Alliana narrows her eyes and purses her lips, as if thinking about this nugget of information. “Do _you_ like loom bands?”

Keith nods, even though Lance has never even seen him make one, let alone _wear_ a bracelet of loom bands. “I like the colors. But I don’t know how to make one, though.”

Alliana taps a small finger on her chin. “I can teach you how,  I guess,” she says, while sounding completely burdened by this.

Lance flicks a finger at Alliana’s ear. “Well, if you’re going to sound like that, you don’t have to, bumblebee. Keith and I can hang out at the beach and build sand castles instead.”

Alliana glares up at him, as if annoyed that he had ruined her little dramatics. “No. I want to teach him.” She hops off at that and goes to bother Amy and Pidge next.

Lance hears Lolo Tommy breathe out a sigh of relief. “ _Salamat sa Diyos_ , I’ve been relieved of loom band duty.” He smiles at Keith. “Thanks, Keith.”

“Um. You’re welcome?” Keith looks hesitantly at Lance.

Lance laughs and bumps Keith’s shoulder. “Ever since Alliana’s discovered the beauty of loom bands, she’s been making our grandpa make the bracelets with her,” he explains.

“Oh,” Keith blinks. Then he smiles tentatively at Lolo Tommy. “Then I’m happy to help, sir.”

Lolo Tommy waves a hand. “Call me Grandpa Tomas. Or Grandpa Tommy.” Lolo Tommy peers at Keith over his glasses. “And eat more. You’re too skinny.”

Keith looks down at his plate and pokes at the chopped hot dogs mixed in the red orange spaghetti with a bemused face. He takes a forkful of spaghetti, cuts a piece of the chicken and shoves it in his mouth, his cheeks bulging. Lance ducks his head and hides a smile against Keith’s shoulder.

“Alejandro, do you think I didn’t mean you as well?” Lolo Tommy asks blandly. “Go get a plate and eat. I’ll keep Keith entertained.”

Lance’s smile fades at that. “That’s okay, I can—”

“Nonsense,” He says, a suspicious gleam in eyes. “I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about, Keith and I.”

Keith nudges Lance with his elbow. His face is calm and smooth except for the small quirk at the corner of his lips. “I’ll be fine. Go and get food.” Keith pauses before adding, “And you were right, your mom’s chicken is the best in the world.”

Lance couldn’t help grin at that. “Told you, didn’t I?” he says and gets up. “I’ll be right back,” he says in a warning tone to Lolo Tommy.

Lolo Tommy just winks at him and turns to Keith. And as Lance is walking away, he hears Lolo Tommy say, “So, I hear you’re Vietnamese. But have you ever _actually been_ to Vietnam?”

Lance hurries to the table and shoulders Hunk away from the white rice and spaghetti area. “Hey!” Hunk says in indignation. Lance ignores him and takes two servings of rice and two servings of spaghetti. 

“Sorry, buddy,” Lance says without taking his eyes off his food. He grabs two chicken wings and drowns it in Lola Adore’s homemade gravy. “I gotta make this fast. My grandpa’s interrogating Keith. I can’t leave him alone there.”

“Keith looks pretty okay to me.”

Lance follows the direction of Hunk’s gaze. Lolo Tommy has placed his cup of coffee on the space beside him and is gesturing with both hands as he explains something to Keith. Keith is listening attentively, occasionally eating a forkful of spaghetti and chicken, his eyes wide.

“That, my friend, is called lulling them into a false sense of security,” Lance says. “Talk to you later!”

Lance arrives just in time to hear his grandpa saying “—also like _bánh mì_ , those sandwiches are amazing, but I can’t stand Vietnamese coffee. Too milky for me,” Lolo Tommy pauses and looks at Keith curiously. “You like Vietnamese coffee, _iho_?”

Keith presses his lips together, and genuinely looks as if he’s thinking about it. “I like coffee, in general. But I usually drink it black.” Keith glances at Lance, then at his plate. “Are you feeding an army with that?”

Lance defiantly takes a bite out of the chicken wing. “I’m hungry,” he says around a mouthful.

“I’ve been telling Keith about the time I traveled to Vietnam when I was a young man,” Lolo Tommy interjects, his eyes twinkling behind his glasses. “I told him _nem nuong_ is better wrapped in rice paper than putting it in noodles and vegetables.”

Keith laughed. “And I told him that it was more filling and tasty when the pork hash is mixed with the noodles and veggies than just eating it with rice paper.” Keith shrugged, a smile still on his face. “We agreed to disagree.”

Lolo Tommy suddenly gets a sly look on his face. “Maybe I’d be more convinced if you make some _bun nem nuong_ and bring it to the house next time, Keith.”

Lance can’t help but choke on the chicken and rice he was currently inhaling. “ _Lolo_ Tommy! You can’t just—”

“Sure, Grandpa Tommy,” Keith answers, as if Lance hasn't spoken. “As long as you give me baby photos of Lance.”

Lolo Tommy chuckles. “Not a problem, _iho._ But like I said, you have to visit us again at the house.” He glances up and smiles. “Looks like Adoracion is coming our way. Lance, make room for your grandmother.”

Lola Adore is, in fact, walking towards them, her eyes squinted as she sits beside Lance. Lance suddenly remembers about her glasses and reaches inside his jean pocket. “I almost forgot! Here, _Lola_. Saw this at the kitchen counter top.”

She beams at Lance as she pushes her glasses up her nose. “Thank you, _apo._ I’ve been fighting headaches all night.” She sits down beside Lance and pats his knee. Then she leans over Lance to look at Keith. “Do you like the food, Keith?”

Keith nods. “Yes, ma’am. Lance told me that you make the gravy from scratch. It’s really delicious.”

Lola Adore waves a hand. “Gravy is nothing. You haven’t had real Filipino food if you haven’t tasted a home cooked meal.” She adjusts her glasses. “How long have you and Lance been dating?”

Keith blinks at the sudden change of topic. “Roughly around two months, almost since the start of summer after we met in the museum,” he answers, looking at Lance for confirmation. Lance just nods happily, his mouth still full of food.

Lola Adore hums at this, her lips pursed. “And where has he taken you since you started dating?”

“Oh,” Keith says, placing his empty plate on his lap. “Well, we’ve eaten in Jollibee. Lance told me to try the fried chicken rice meal.”  

His grandma wrinkles her nose at Lance and slaps him at the back of the head. “Ow! What was that for?” Lance pouts.

“You haven’t even take Keith out to a proper restaurant?” His grandma asks indignantly. “It’s a wonder this poor boy has stayed with you.” She turns her eyes back to Keith, who was staring at them with bewilderment. “Tell us in advance when you’re coming back to the house so Analyn and I can cook you a real Filipino feast. With _kare-kare_ , _lumpiang ubod_ , _lechon kawali_.” His grandma closes her eyes, as if already imagining the food.

“Ay, Adoracion, you’re making me hungry,” Lolo Tommy grumbles as he picks up his cup again and sips from it.

“I think Paulie brought out more ensalada and grilled tilapia from the kitchen,” she replies with a laugh. “And don’t forget to drink your maintenance meds after.”

He nods and ambles towards the table. Lola Adore looks at him with fondness and exasperation. “That man can’t cook to save his life,” she says, as if imparting a secret. “Did Lance tell you? Our rice cooker exploded because he plugged it in the wrong outlet.”

“Lance may have mentioned it, yeah,” Keith says, barely covering up his laughter.

“Sometimes I think that’s the main reason he married me,” she says with a wink. “I was the best cook in town when I was a young girl. Cooking good food was how you catch a Filipino boy, back then. Especially if you don’t have looks. But since I had both...” Lola Adore grins. “My mother had to beat all my suitors back with a stick.”

Keith listens to do this with wide eyes. “Does Lance know how to cook like you do, ma’am?” Keith asks, glancing at Lance with a smirk.

Lance clears his throat and shifts in his seat beside Keith. “Actually, I—”

Lola Adore snorts. “Heavens, no. He takes after their grandpa that way. Thank goodness Paulie takes after their mother.” She smiles when Keith finally lets out a laugh at that. “And call me Grandma Adore.”

Keith nods, his fingers playing with the edges of his paper plate. “Thank you for the good food, Grandma Adore.”

She nods. “It’s no problem, Keith,” she says. She pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose and looks at him more closely. “Do you know how to cook?”

Lance can see Keith trying not to clam up. “A bit. Mostly fried stuff and the few Vietnamese dishes my grandpa teaches me,” he answers.

“Oh,” she says, tilting her head. A breeze blows past them and it makes a few strands of silver hair escape her tight bun. “I see. Because I do worry about Lance, if he ends up with a boy. Which is fine. But who’s going to cook and take care of him? And what about children—”

“ _Lola_ Adore,” Lance says sharply. “ _Tama na. Masyado na yan._ ” He clears his throat and tries to redirect the conversation by saying lightly, “Also, assuming that women do all the cooking and just take care of their husbands? Not cool.”

“It’s okay, Lance,” Keith says, releasing his grip on the paper plate and taking Lance’s hand. And Lance knows Keith isn't talking about the feminist statement he just spouted off. Keith's shoulders are bunched up but he’s staring at Lola Adore evenly. “I understand. And I think we’re learning how to take care of each other. But I think, right now, we have to prioritize school and just. Enjoy each other’s company.” He tries to smile and it breaks Lance’s heart. “Maybe in the meantime, you can teach both of us how to cook Filipino food.”

Lance stares at Keith, who probably just spoke the longest string of sentences ever in Lance’s presence. And his words just keep bouncing around like ping pong balls in Lance’s head. _We’re learning how to take care of each other._ He’s been pretty obvious with how much he loves Keith, but he never even thought that Keith might be thinking about these things.

And it makes the dark little corner in Lance’s mind—the part that asks why Keith _still_ pulls away from Lance—wonder even more what, exactly, is wrong when everything else seems so fucking right?

“Oh,” Lola Adore says again, but in a completely different tone. She blinks several times before finally patting Keith’s hand that is wrapped around Lance’s. “Oh, that’s good to hear. And, of course. Our kitchen is always open.” She stands up and brushes her hands against her skirt. “Now, excuse me, boys. I have to check if Tomas has taken his meds.”

Once Lola Adore is out of hearing range, Lance quickly turns to Keith, who has gone back to playing with the edges of his paper plate, his shoulder slumped like he’s been deflated. “Keith, I'm… I'm _so sorry_ about that,” he whispers, leaning close to Keith. “She doesn't mean anything bad about what she just said, she's just—”

“Overprotective?” Keith finishes, a strange smile on his face, still not looking at Lance. “I'd be surprised if she wasn't. You're probably the most handful of her grandkids.”

Lance can appreciate a joke when he hears one, even though it sounded half hearted. “Are you okay?”

Keith finally meets Lance’s gaze. “I'm fine, Lance. I've been expecting the shovel talks, to be honest. I can handle it.”

Lance grimaces. He didn't even think of that. When he imagined Keith being here, he had pictured everyone just getting along and accepting Keith in the fold. He completely forgot how nosy and protective his family could be. Which was just plain stupid on Lance’s part. “You don't have to handle it alone, though,” he says fiercely. “I'll be right beside you all the way. We’ll be like... the literal version of _this._ ” Lance crosses his fingers tight.

Keith gets that stupid-for-Lance look on his face and leans forward until their foreheads are touching. “Thanks, lamebrain.” Keith steals a quick kiss from Lance before getting up. When Lance moves to stand up as well, Keith gestures him to sit back down. “I’ll be right back. I’m just gonna get more food.”

Lance hesitates. It probably won’t take more than two minutes, tops, for Keith to get food. “I’ll be watching you like a hawk,” Lance warns.

Keith gives him an exasperated eye roll before heading to the dining table. Lance watches Keith stare thoughtfully at the big pots of food. Angel, who is grabbing slices of mango, sees Keith and approaches him, all the while pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Keith looks down at Angel and replies to something she said.

Huh. Out of all his sisters, Angel was the one Lance had expected not to talk to Keith, since he knew how conscious his ten-year old sister is about her lisp.

“Relax, little brother,” Ate Paulie drawls. Lance jumps at how near her voice sounds and when he glances to the side, he sees Ate Paulie sitting down a few inches away from him, with a plate of spaghetti in her hand. “Angel’s just probably asking him if he likes to read.”

“I can’t help it,” he mutters. “ _Lola_ Adore sort of… I don’t even know what that was. Lectured? Warned? I don’t want us to scare him off.”

Ate Paulie looks at Keith, who is looking bemusedly at Angel as she points to several bowls on the table and starts putting food on Keith’s plate. “I think you’re underestimating him. And, really, what did you expect? He’s the first boy you’ve ever brought home. Hunk doesn’t count,” Ate Paulie adds when she sees Lance open his mouth to argue. “Mom is probably just waiting for the perfect time to talk to him.”

Lance winces. “Do you think she’d take it easy on Keith if I asked?”

Ate Paulie laughs and pats him on the back. “I mean, you can try? But let me know if you do so I can watch.”

“Ugh. You suck.”

“I do my best,” she replies with a grin. Then her face becomes more serious. “For what it’s worth, I like the way he looks at you when he thinks you’re not looking.”

Lance tries to keep his expression under wraps, because he knows Ate Paulie is watching for his reaction. “Glad you approve,” he finally settles on saying.

“Not yet, little bro,” she says gleefully before slapping him on the back and standing up. “I’m still waiting for _my_ turn to talk to him.”

Lance stares after her. “ _Ate_ Paulie!” He shouts.

She cackles evilly and continues walking away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kuya - honorific for big brother  
> Mano or pagmano - Filipino culture that shows a younger relative’s sign of respect to elders by kissing them on the cheek, kissing their hand, or pressing their hand against the forehead.  
> Salamat sa Diyos. - Thank the Lord.  
> Iho - son  
> Nem nuong - pork hash made into something like meatballs and put on a stick (ask May for more details haha)  
> Bun nem nuong - when you put nem nuong in a bowl of noodles and vegetables (again, ask May)  
> Apo - grandchild  
> Kare-kare - ox stew  
> Lumpiang ubod - spring rolls  
> Lechon kawali - crispy pork belly  
> Ensalada - this is the Spanish word for salad. But in the Philippines, an ensalada usually includes salted eggs, grilled tomatoes, and eggplant with bagoong (fermented fish or krill with salt). We’re extra that way.  
> Tama na. - That’s enough.  
> Masyado na yan. - That’s too much.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Karaoke Showdown begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please try your best not to judge my song choices haha

Lance gives in to the urge to eavesdrop on his boyfriend and younger sister’s conversation. He sidles close to Keith until he can make out Angel saying, “—the _Space Voyagers of the Intergalactic Seas_ series is really cool, _Kuya_ Keith. I always check it out of the library.”

“Is this the one with the space pirates, sweetpea?” Lance asks Angel and slings his arm around her.

Angel nods enthusiastically up at Lance, her glasses sliding down. “ _Lola_ Adore calls it graphic novels,” she continues, turning back to Keith. “So there’s lots of pictures and stuff. But if you want to read books with more words, let me know.”

Lance chuckles as Keith take this in with a completely serious face while eating his second round of food. Lance notes that his plate consists of a small portion of ensalada, the tail part of the grilled tilapia, and a fistful mound of rice. Lance also notes, this time with satisfaction, that Keith really does seem to like the food, judging by how fast he's finishing it.

“Thanks, Angel. I’ll keep that in mind,” Keith says.

At that moment, Amy takes the opportunity to stand in the middle of the room. “Attention, everyone!” She says. “ _Ate_ Pidge and I have finished setting up the karaoke machine and it’s time to officially start,” She bows her head before lifting it dramatically and flourishing a hand towards the karaoke machine. “The Karaoke Showdown!”

Lance’s whole family cheers and claps, and even Hunk and Pidge are yelling and pumping their fists in the air. Keith glances at Lance uncertainly. “Karaoke showdown?”

Lance places a hand on Keith’s lower back to usher him back to a seat on the bench. “It's a family tradition whenever we're here," he explains. "We divide into two groups and basically have a singing contest. We add everyone’s individual song scores into their group’s total score. Whichever group gets the highest score wins. When the groups aren’t divided equally, like now, we take the average of the total score.”

“What does the winning group get?” Keith asks.

“Bragging rights, duh,” Lance answers with a grin. He can see Amy and his mom huddled on the table as they divvy up everyone into groups. “It gets intense, though. Last year, Alliana cried because she just got a 90. We're all pretty competitive,” Lance adds.

“I wouldn't have guessed.” Keith's voice is as dry as the sand.

They both look up when his mom and Amy straighten up from their huddle. “Okay, we’ve drawn lots for everyone and since there are eleven of us, one group is going to have six people,” Mom explains. “Group A includes Amy, Lance, Keith, me, and Pidge. Group B is Grandma, Grandpa, Paulie, Angel, Alliana, and Hunk.”

“What! That’s completely unfair, mom!” Ate Paulie exclaims. “You, Amy, and Lance _can’t_ be on the same team.”

“Yeah, but you guys get six people on your group, so I say that’s fair,” Lance butts in with a smirk that he knows will annoy Ate Paulie even more. He hears Hunk explain to Keith beside him that, “Aunt Analyn, Amy, and Lance are the best singers in the family. Someone always objects when they all end up being on the same team.”

“Wait, I actually have to _sing_?” Keith says, his voice disbelieving. He curls his hand around Lance’s arm. “Lance, I can’t. I don’t know how.”

Lance looks away from the ensuing debate about the groups and glances at Keith. “It’s gonna be fine, babe. You can pick any song you want.” Lance grins a Keith’s frowning face. “Unless you’re scared.”

Keith glares at Lance balefully. “I’m not scared. But I’m not falling for that either.”

Lance pats Keith on the back sympathetically, ignoring how Keith tries to swat his hand away. “Everyone,” Lance says in mock-sadness, even though his family is still arguing about how the groups should be divided. “Keith has stage fright. Someone hand my boyfriend a paper bag for his head, let him hide from his shame— _ow!_ ” Lance rubs his arm from where Keith punched him.

“ _Lance_. Shut up.” He sighs and rubs a hand down his face. “I’ll do it.”

Lance whoops and does a fist pump. “Knew you couldn’t resist me,” he says, with an exaggerated wink. In the corner of his eye, he sees Amy stand up as she argues louder with Ate Paulie.

“More like I knew there wasn’t any other way to shut you up.”

“Guys!” Lance’s mom says over their bickering, Ate Paulie’s and Amy’s included. “I can switch with someone, if that’ll make things easier.”

“Oh, me! Me!” Alliana says, shooting up a hand, her loom bands shaking along her wrists. “I wanna be with _Kuya_ Keith!”

Everyone laughs, though Ate Paulie’s laugh sounds more relieved than amused, and Keith goes red with pleasure and probably embarrassment. “C’mere, bumblebee,” Lance says, waving her to come to their bench.

Everyone else follows suit, switching seats until they’re all with their groups. “Lance and Paulie, do the coin toss for who goes first,” His mom orders.

“Loser has to do the other person’s chores for two weeks?” Ate Paulie asks as soon as they meet at the middle.

Lance smirks. “Deal. If it lands on heads, you go first.” The group members take turns in singing, but it’s a good advantage if the other group member’s always go first so that Lance can see what they’re going to sing.

Ate Paulie flips the coin in the air. When it lands on heads, Lance jumps up and cheers while Ate Paulie groans. “Hey _Ate_ Paulie, remember that when you take out the trash, segregate it in the black and green bins out the backyard,” Lance says with a grin, shooting finger guns at her.

She wrinkles her nose and slaps away his hands. “Shut up, doofus. You haven’t won yet.”

“Nice one, Lance,” Pidge laughs and gives him a high five as he skips back to them.

Amy leans forward, rubbing her hands together, her face in total concentration mode. “Okay, so who goes first.”

Alliana shoots up her hand again, whispering under her breath, “Me, me!”

Lance nods. “If they let Angel go first, then yeah, Alliana can go.”

“Fine. What’re you going to sing?” She asks Alliana with narrowed eyes.

“Moana,” is the immediate answer.

“Do you know the lyrics?” Amy gets a nod in response. “Do you know how to _read_ the lyrics on the screen?”

At this, Alliana purses her lips and frowns at her older sister, all the while looking offended. “I know how to _read._ I’m eight years old!”

Amy raises her hands in defense. “You _just_ turned eight a few weeks ago,” she points out. “And I was just making sure, jeez.”

They both look up when the other group cheers and claps. Angel bends down the glowing blue karaoke machine and unhooks the mic from where it’s latched on to the side of the little set.

“ _Shake It Out_ by Florence + The Machine,” Angel says into the mic, her glasses reflecting the light of the karaoke.

A hologram screen shines through the top of the karaoke, the words “1 Song Found” clear since the neon blue screen is backdropped by the night sky behind the karaoke set.

“Play,” Angel orders and pushes her glasses up her nose. The machine, along with the hologram, glows neon green before the music starts playing, the lyrics on the screen.

“Go, sweetpea!” Lance hollers and claps for Angel. Everyone else follows suit, even though Amy elbows him and hisses, “No cheering for the enemy.”

Angel gives a shy little smile before turning back to the screen, the mic clutched tightly in both of her hands. When she sings the first verse, her voice is quiet, maybe because she knows a new person (Keith) is watching with them.

But by the second verse, her shoulders are more relaxed, her face completely focused on the screen as it flashes the next set of lyrics. Her lisp is barely noticeable as she sings about how it’s always darkest before the dawn.

Amy snorts, but Lance can see the proud look in her eyes. “It’s so Angel,” she says.

“Like you have any room to judge, popstar,” Lance shoots back. “Bet you picked a super dramatic song, too.”

“Wow,” Keith says from beside him. He’s staring with wide eyes at Angel, who’s belting out the chorus, pouring out how she’s going to shake it out. “She’s good.”

“Get used to it, Keith,” Pidge says, patting him on the back. “Amy, Aunt Analyn and Lance may be the powerhouse singers—would you wipe that stupid smirk off your face, Lance—but everyone in the Macalino family sings. Hunk and I have seen them doing the dishes and cleaning the table and suddenly breaking out in song. _Broadway songs._ ”

“Which you thoroughly enjoyed, don’t deny,” Lance says with a grin.

When Angel croons out the last few lines, everyone from her group stands up and cheers. His mom is clapping so hard that Lance is actually scared her arms might fall off.

They all watch as the machine turns neon blue again, with numbers running through the screen. It turns back to green when the score 96 pops up. Angel pumps her fist in the air and Lolo Tommy and Lola Adore wrap their arms around Angel and kiss her on the cheek.

Amy turns back to them, her hands on her hips. “Okay, we can totally make that score a 100, easy,” she says. “You ready, Alliana?”

Alliana jumps off her seat and salutes to Amy. “Yeah!”

Amy accompanies Alliana to the front and says into the mic, “ _How Far I’ll Go_ , Moana, original soundtrack.” She hands the mic to Alliana, who eagerly grabs it, before going back to their bench.

“I really hope she can read all the lyrics,” Amy murmurs. “Some of the lines flash by so fast.”

“Will you chill out?” Lance leans back and stretches out an arm on the bench behind Amy’s back. “Alliana’s been practicing the song all week. Even I know it by heart.”

“Yeah because you keep singing it in the museum,” Pidge mutters.

“Who was it I heard rapping the verses in _You're Welcome_ along with me?” Lance asks, pretending to check his nails with a sly grin. “Memorized word per word, I may add.”

“I'm never helping you fix your jurassic phone again,” Pidge says simply. But Lance can see the tinge of red on her cheeks and the upward curl of her lips.

Lance gasps and flings himself across Keith's lap to sling his arms around Pidge’s narrow shoulders. “Pidge. My love. My light. You know I was kidding, right? My Nokia would not last 24 hours without you resuscitating it.”

Pidge leans away and pushes Lance’s face away with her hand. “You should've thought of that _before_ insulting me.”

“But I wasn't!” Lance squishes himself closer to Pidge, much to her annoyance and to Keith's bemusement. “That was me complimenting your mad rapping skillz.”

“If I didn't want to win this showdown so badly myself, I'd rig the machine during your song,” Pidge lets Lance know.

Keith looks away from Alliana’s performance—Lance couldn't name it anything else, the kid was staring longingly at the beach and doing coordinated hand dance movements as she sings, for crying out loud—to stare at Pidge. “Wait, you _knew_ about the showdown beforehand and you didn't tell me?”

Pidge shrugs. “Lance told us not to.”

Keith slaps Lance at the back of his head. “Lance...” He says in a dangerous tone.

Lance extracts himself from Pidge to lean against Keith. “It’s only fair! Hunk and Pidge had no clue about the annual karaoke when I first invited them.”

“That is true,” Pidge allows. “God, I remember how nervous Hunk was. I kept thinking he was gonna hurl every time he sang the chorus.”

“What did he sing?” Keith asks, tilting his head.

“ _Sunday Morning_ by Maroon 5,” Lance says with a smirk. “It wasn’t bad for Hunk’s first try. But our team definitely didn’t win that year.”

Pidge winces. “Yeah, let’s not bring back bad memories.”

Amy leans over and pats Pidge on her knee. “Don’t worry, _Ate_ Pidge, we’re gonna win. I’m on your team, aren’t I?”

Keith huff out a laugh and leans against Lance. “I wonder where she gets that confidence from,” he murmurs in Lance's ear.

Lance pokes his side. “It’s _well-deserved_ confidence, thank you very much,” Lance says primly. “Amy’s the one in the choir. I swear, if it were allowed in church, my mom would be taking videos and pictures of her non-stop whenever she sings.”

Amy glances at them with a raised eyebrow. “Look who’s talking.” She turns to Keith with a grin and adds, “I thought they were going to kick him out of the church for standing up and clapping so loud.”

Keith smiles wryly. “I’m not surprised.”

Lance flails his arms, as he looks back and forth at Amy and Keith, who were sharing a look of understanding. “I’m deeply offended. What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Let’s take a break from La La Lance Land and clap for Alliana, shall we?” Pidge says dryly.

They look up as Alliana finishes the last line with a lilting note, her voice going slightly off pitch at the end. Amy smiles and whistles instead of criticizing her sister’s performance like she normally would.

Alliana curtsies, her smile wide. And when the score 95 pops up, she jumps in the air and skips back to them.

Lance raises his hand for a high five, which his youngest sister readily returns. “Good job, bumblebee, five points higher than last year!”

Amy nods. “Definitely rockstar material,” she says.

Alliana squirms between Lance and Keith until they've made space for her. She looks at Keith and bats her eyelashes. “I sang like a Disney Princess, right, _Kuya_ Keith?”

Keith nods and tentatively pats Alliana on the back. “Just like in the movies,” he assures.

Alliana giggles and leans closer to him.

“Someone has a little crush on your boyfriend,” Amy murmurs, her voice low enough that only Lance hears her.

Lance bites his lip as he watches Alliana engage Keith in a conversation about why she picked Moana’s song. “Well, he is crushable.” Lance pauses. “Don’t tell him I said that, though.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the next three chapters are going to be about karaoke??? The Macalinos cannot be denied so bear with me.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karaoke Showdown, part 2.

Hunk walks up towards the karaoke machine, his face turning beet red when Ate Paulie wolf-whistles. “ _Life is a Highway_ by Rascal Flatts,” Hunk mumbles on the mic.

“I knew it!” Pidge says triumphantly, slapping a hand on her knee. “Can’t believe he tried to keep it a secret from us.”

Lance stretches his arm behind Keith and lets his fingers draw circles on Keith’s back. “You know he gets performance anxiety. He probably didn’t want to jinx it.”

Keith leans back against Lance’s hand. He still looks a little tense, his eyes alert and his shoulders drawn like he’s going into battle. But he didn’t look as anxious as he did when he first realized he was going to have to sing. “He’s probably been practicing in the shower all week,” Keith says with a sigh.

Everyone on the other group is clapping their hands in time to the beat of Hunk’s song. Hunk, meanwhile, has finally let loose and is bobbing his head and shimmying his hips while singing how life is a highway and that he wants to ride it all night long.

Pidge pats Keith on the knee. “Just pick a song that _you_ always sing in the shower, and you’ll be fine.”

Keith gives her the stink eye. “I don’t sing in the shower, Pidge.”

Alliana looks up at Keith with surprise. “You don’t?” She asks, sounding scandalized.

Lance wraps his outstretched arm around Keith’s shoulders with Alliana wriggling between them. “Babe. Everyone sings in the shower, don’t pretend. It’s not a sin.”

Keith scowls. “ _Lance_ —”

“Okay, let’s say that for some reason, I believe you and that you don’t actually indulge in the occasional bathroom concert. What’s one song you’d _theoretically_ sing in the shower?”

Pidge, Alliana, and Amy all lean forward as they wait for Keith’s answer. Keith hunches back against Lance’s arm. “Maybe something by Goo Goo Dolls,” he mutters, crossing his arms over his chest.  

Pidge snorts. “Well, that fits.”

Alliana tugs the hem of Lance’s shirt. “What’s Goo Goo Dolls?” She whispers loudly to Lance.

Lance smirks at Keith. “If you’re lucky, Keith will sing one of their songs later.”

Amy looks even more interested now than she did a second ago. “What song?”

Keith fiddles with the strings of his board shorts. “The one from the movie _Treasure Planet_.”

Amy nods slowly. “That could work,” she says while staring at Keith. Lance could feel Keith squirming under Amy’s studying gaze.

Alliana tugs at Keith’s hands, bouncing on her seat. “That’s the one with Jim and the cyborg and the cube and the weird space pet and the flying ships and the planets and the space pirates, right?” She says in one breath. “Angel and I love that movie! It’s Disney, too.”

Lance gives in and presses his lips to Keith’s hot cheek. “It’s broody, emo, and soulful. It’s completely perfect for you, babe.”

Keith narrows his eyes at Lance. “Yeah? Well, what are _you_ singing?”

Lance grins lazily and twirls his finger into an errant curl of Keith’s mullet. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Keith’s lips curl up, his hand reaching up to stop Lance’s fingers in his hair. “I’ll find out anyway.”

Pidge clears her throat obnoxiously loud. “When you two are done with… that,” she says with a wave of her hand and a glance at Alliana. Lance would bet that she’s holding in the words _unresolved sexual tension_ for the sake of his little sister. “Pay attention because it’s almost my turn, losers.”

“Hunk’s almost done?” Keith asks, leaning forward.

Amy nods. “Last verse. He definitely did better with this one.”

When Hunk finishes and the score 95 pops up, Lance stands and claps. “That’s my best bro right there!” He hollers, shaking his head in mock-amazement.

Hunk rolls his eyes at them and smiles at his teammates as he returns to his seat.

“Okay, _Ate_ Pidge, your turn,” Amy says. “What’re you singing?”

Pidge pushes her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. “ _Wild Things_ by Alessia Cara.”

Amy smiles. “Not bad. You’re gonna kill it.”

Pidge laughs and jumps off the bench. “Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Pidge starts off with a self-deprecating smile, clapping a hand against her thigh in time to the beat. But by the time she gets to the second verse, she’s more confident, even pointing to Hunk, Lance, and Keith when she sings about how they’re cooler than the in crowd. They cheer at that and Pidge somehow manages to sing perfectly well while laughing.

“D’you think _Ate_ Pidge practiced in the shower, too?” Lance hears Alliana ask Keith.

“If she did, she’ll never admit it,” Keith answers with a small laugh.

“She sounds good,” Amy interjects while bobbing her head to the rhythm of the song.

“We’re totally gonna win, right, bumblebee?” Lance says, raising a hand for a high five.

Alliana returns the high five with a big grin. “Totally!”

Lance isn’t surprised when Pidge’s score is 92, but they all still stand and clap for her when she runs back to the bench, her smile stretching from ear to ear. “As of one of the only three non-Macalino singers in this showdown, I’m seriously pleased with myself right now.”

Lance hooks his arm around her neck and gives her noogie, despite her yowls of protest. “Aww, Pidgeon, you’re all grown up and wild! We’re so proud.”

“Lance, let me _go_!”

Lance yelps when he suddenly feels a short sting at his side and lets go of Pidge in surprise. Keith stops pinching Lance and smirks at him. “You sounded awesome, Pidge,” Keith says.

Pidge smooths out her hair and glares up at Lance. “Thanks, Keith,” she says. "Unlike some people, you at least know how to say congratulations like _a normal person should._ "

“Hey! Pipe it down from there, it’s Mom’s turn!” Ate Paulie hollers from her seat.

Amy rolls her eyes and sits back down. “Don’t mind her, she’s just worried because we’re leading.”

“But Mom’s gonna pull up their score, for sure,” Lance says. He's not worried, though. With him and Amy, there were going to be unstoppable.

As expected, his Mom picks something by Journey, her voice a smooth and melodious alto. But she sings through the high notes of _Don’t Stop Believing_ without any difficulty. She’s even dancing around and singing without looking at the lyrics on the screen.

“ _Some will win,_ ” Mom points to her cheering group. “ _Some will lose._ ” She winks and does a finger gun at Lance and his group.

Amy and Lance share a glance before cupping their hands over their mouths and shouting, “Boo!”

“No distractions!” Angel says from the other side.

“Mom started it!” Amy fires back.

Meanwhile, their mom carries on, shaking her shoulders and hips as she kills the chorus, not a care in the world.

Alliana giggles at them and presumptuously decides to sit on Keith's lap. Keith instantly loops an arm around Alliana to keep her from falling. His brow is furrowed and his lips are curled, like he’s not sure if he should be happy or worried that a kid is sitting on his lap.

Lance places his arm back around Keith’s shoulder and bends his head until his lips are brushing against Keith’s ear. He’s probably pushing it with all the touching, and he can _feel_ his grandma’s eyes on them, but right now all that matters is that Keith is fine with Lance’s (and his sister's) clingy octopus limbs. “You okay?”

Keith barely turns his head, but it’s enough that for their cheeks to touch. “Fine. Just a little overwhelmed. In a good way,” he adds hurriedly and leans away.

“Okay. Just let me know if you need air.”

Keith’s face softens. “I will. Thanks, Lance.” He sits closer to Lance until his head is almost leaning against Lance’s outstretched arm.

Lance shrugs. “I know my family can be a little… loud.”

“They’re like you,” Keith says with a small smile and a glance down at the little girl who was paying more attention to Lance’s mom than to the two of them. “Or I see parts of you in all of them. It’s nice. I’ve never had a big family.”

Lance kind of wants to bury his face on the crook of Keith’s neck right now and just nuzzle the hell out of him. But he’s trying to restrain himself. “You’re welcome to them,” Lance says, and who could blame him if his voice comes out a little rough? “They wouldn’t have invited you to be part of the showdown if they didn’t like you.”

Keith raises an eyebrow. “Not even to be polite?”

Lance snorts. “Like you said, me and my family are alike in some ways. And have you ever seen _me_ be polite? Don’t answer that,” Lance adds when Keith opens his mouth. “One time, _Ate_ Paulie brought one of the guys she was dating. And we didn’t like him since he was a complete douche, so we just made him the scorekeeper. Then we all made up excuses about how the guest room was full and messy so it’d be better for him to go home instead of sleeping over.”

This time, Keith raises both eyebrows. “You’re kidding.”

Lance grins. “Nope. _Ate_ Paulie was furious and she ended up driving back to the city with the dude. But she saw the light and broke up with him a few weeks after.”

Keith laughs. “That’s good. I bet you all celebrated behind her back.”

“Nah, we celebrated _with_ her,” Lance says. “Chicken and spaghetti, the usual.”

“Oh no,” Alliana suddenly moans, looking up at Lance and Keith with a devastated expression. “Mom got a _hundred._ ”

Lance and Keith look up to see his mom curtsying as her score flashes across the screen. “Mom always gets a hundred, bumblebee,” Lance replies. “You ready, popstar?”

Amy nods, her face set in determination. “Let’s do this.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karaoke showdown, part 3.

Amy walks across the floor with her chin up and back straight. Her sideswept bangs are fluttering against the cool breeze. She picks up the mic and clears her throat primly before saying, “ _Young and Beautiful_ by Lana Del Rey.”

“Oh my God,” Lance snorts. “And she has the guts to judge Angel for her song choice.”

Keith glances at him. “What do you mean?”

Lance flings his free hand at Amy, whose face is contorted to an expression of Angst and Burden as she croons about having seen the world and done it all. Her eyes are closed and her brows pulled down. Lance would bet that in a few months she’d be able to learn how to cry on command. “Because that is _so Amy._ If she could get away with it, she’d wear a full-length gown.”

Alliana takes this opportunity to interject from Keith’s lap, “ _Ate_ Paulie and _Kuya_ always call her a drama queen.”

“She sounds _really_ good, though,” Keith says, his eyes widening when Amy hits a high note perfectly, her voice lilting. She doesn’t have Lana Del Rey’s raspy, whiskey voice, but Amy adds her own bite to the song, emphasizing specific words with a bit of a growl ( _Dear God, when I go to heaven,_ please let me _take my man_ ) or a piercing cry at the end of a line ( _I_ _hope you will, I hope you_ will).

“Future popstar,” Lance says, since that pretty much explains everything about Amy. “What can you do.”

“You have nicknames for all of them,” Keith notes. “Except for  _Ate_ Paulie, I think. I haven’t heard you call her anything.”

“That’s coz _Ate_ Paulie will kill him with her bare hands,” Alliana pipes up again in a matter-of-fact-tone. “She told us so when Lance tried calling her The Dictator.”

This time Keith laughs louder, the corners of his eyes crinkling. Even Pidge is cackling in the background. Alliana grins up at Keith, before turning back and singing along with Amy.  “How do you pick the nicknames?” He asks Lance.

Pidge makes another sound of amusement and leans back. “This I wanna hear. An Inside Look on how the mind of the Master of Nicknames works,” Pidge says with a grin.

Lance shrugs, and slouches down until he can lean his head against Keith’s shoulder. Keith starts against the contact, but he relaxes after a second. “I don’t know honestly,” Lance says, rubbing his cheek against the exposed skin of Keith’s shoulder where the arm hole ends. “Just comes to me, I guess. Popstar for Amy, coz. Well, that’s obvious. She’s gonna be a huge singer someday. No question about it. Sweetpea for Angel because I used to read the _Princess and the Pea_ to her when she was small. It was the only way I could get her to sleep and stop reading past her bedtime. I don’t know why, it was one of the most ridiculous fairy tales I’ve read. I mean, who feels a pea under a bajillion mattresses? And bumblebee for Alliana because—”

“ _Kuya_ says I keep buzzing and flitting ‘round,” Alliana finishes, glancing up at them again from Keith’s lap. When she sees Lance’s position, she pouts and crosses her arms. “I wanna lean against _Kuya_ Keith’s shoulder too!”

Lance grins and pushes his face further up Keith’s shoulder and into the crook of his neck, until Lance’s forehead is brushing against the strands of hair behind Keith’s ear. This close he can feel the heat from Keith's blush. “Sorry, bumblebee. I’m the only one allowed to sit like this with Keith.”

“Really?” Alliana asks with wide brown eyes turned up at Keith.

“Um.” Keith replies eloquently, squirming beside Lance. “Maybe not like how Lance is sitting. I can give you hugs?” He says this like it’s a question, his eyes turned to Lance.

“Yeah, Keith gives the second best hugs after Hunk.” When Keith huffs out a laugh, Lance curls his outstretched arm around Keith and squeezes him. “When you’re 40, you can cuddle with your own significant other, okay?”

Alliana is starting to nod thoughtfully when she catches on. She narrows her eyes at Lance and pokes him at the ribs. “40 is too old, _Kuya_!”

They’re all still laughing when Amy struts back to them, her eyes bright and smile wide  from adrenaline and excitement. The holo screen behind her, unsurprisingly, has the score 100 on it.

“Perfect as always,” Lance says, raising his hand for a fist bump. Alliana whoops, jumping from Keith’s lap and shimmying beside Amy.

Amy bumps Lance’s fist. “Were you really expecting anything else?”

“You sounded amazing, Amy,” Keith says, his voice quiet compared to the rest of the Macalinos, but no less sincere.

Amy’s smile gets even bigger. “Thanks,” she says.

Lola Adore goes next, singing _Dancing Queen_ by ABBA as usual. Lolo Tommy does a little wolf whistle when Lola Adore sings about having the time of your life while she sways her her hips, her voice raspy and strong.

“Lance,” Keith says, his voice urgent, suddenly trying to dislodge Lance’s head from his shoulder.

Lance sits up instantly, glancing up at Keith’s face to see if he looks annoyed. “What?”

“Your mom’s staring at us.”

Lance glances at his mom, and true enough, she’s looking at both them. She meets Lance’s eyes with a raised eyebrow. Lance sees Lolo Tommy stop clapping for Lola Adore to say something in his mom’s ear. His mom looks away from them to reply to Lolo Tommy.

“Oh, that,” Lance says, and goes back to leaning his head against Keith’s stiff shoulder. “It’s fine. My mom and I had a talk about PDA and stuff before the sleepover. She knows I can’t survive without at least a one-arm hug every other hour. You know. Handsy tendencies.” Lance punctuates this by rubbing his nose against Keith’s neck. “The staring is just them being nosy." He's actually surprised Keith just noticed. Everyone’s been studying them and trying (failing) not to be obvious about it since they entered the room.

Keith pulls away again, so abruptly that Lance almost falls sideways, his arms flailing. “Handsy tendencies,” he repeats, his voice sounding a little off.

“Dude, warn a guy next time, I almost fell flat on my face,” Lance pouts. “Also, yes, definitely handsy tendencies, if you haven’t noticed—”

“I haven’t,” Keith says flatly, his eyes intense, like he wants to find his way inside Lance’s soul. Like he hasn’t already _has._ “Or not always. You’re not always like that with me.”

No, not when it might make Keith feel suffocated. But Lance just rolls his eyes and shrugs. “Duh, because I have self-control,” Lance half-lies. “’s no big deal, Keith.”

He looks up when he hears another round of clapping and he has never been so relieved to see Lola Adore finish, the score 95 flashing on the screen. “And would you look at that, it’s my turn.” He flashes Keith a grin and shoots finger guns as he stands. “Prepare to be amazed, babe. If you thought Amy was—”

“You already amaze me, Lance,” Keith says, his eyes still piercing through Lance.

Lance can’t speak around the lump on his throat. Because. Well, what could he say to that?

“Lance, hurry up!” Ate Paulie bellows at him from the other bench.

Lance hurries up.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Karaoke Showdown reaches a climax.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please mind the upped rating!

The thing is, Lance had decided on his song yesterday, when he thought it would be hilarious to see Keith’s expression while he sang his number. He thought it’d be funny and sexy and, most of all, a hundred-score-worthy song.

But now, after _that_ conversation, Lance just thinks the song might be… telling. As Lola Adore hands him the mic, Lance thinks about changing the song. Lance chances a glance at Keith, who is still staring at him with those fucking eyes and with Alliana back on his lap, clutching her like he’s holding a tiny, chattering stuffed toy.

Fuck it.

When he says the title into the mic, he hears Ate Paulie wolf-whistle and Amy saying in a flat voice, “Are you kidding me.”

He grins, swaying to the opening beats of the song. “ _I'm so into you, I can barely breathe_ ,” Lance sings, drawing out the last word as he meets Keith’s eyes. “ _And all I wanna do is to fall in deep._ ”

He dimly hears his mom and Hunk laughing and Pidge exasperatedly exclaiming,  “Oh my God, _Lance._ ” Alliana wiggles out of Keith’s slack grasp to dance along to the music. Keith’s lips part when Lance winks at him and does a little shimmy.

“ _Been waiting and waiting for you to make a move._ ” Lance wraps both hands around the mic, and when he moans out the little _oh oh_ parts of that verse, he almost laughs at how red Keith turns. “ _Before_ I make a move _,_ ” he growls out, gyrating his hips.

“Keep it PG, Alejandro!” His mom calls out in a warning but laughing voice.

He blows her a kiss before proceeding to, in his humble opinion, kick ass with the chorus.

He’s reminded of the first time he ever performed in front of a crowd, during the Christmas school event in sixth grade. He’d just started learning how to play the guitar that summer, when Lolo Tommy decided to teach him, but he’d worked his butt off to get the role as the acoustic guitarist for the school musical, never mind that it was just an accompaniment to the piano. He didn’t have speaking lines, and he didn’t have any singing parts, but it was still _such a rush_ , knowing that his performance was perfect—for a sixth grader, anyway—and that people saw _how_ good he was. It made his heart pump louder in his ears, made his hands feel a little colder, slicker. It made his muscles feel tight because he was barely restraining all the excess energy coursing through his body.

It feels that way right now, but the only one in his field of vision is Keith.

“ _I made too many mistakes._ ” Lance’s voice sounds a little breathy, but maybe that’s from walking and dancing back and forth. Maybe. “ _Better get this right_.”

Pidge is saying something to Keith. But Keith looks like he’s barely paying attention to her, his eyes tracking Lance’s every move, his lips still slightly parted, like he can’t believe what he’s seeing, like he really does think Lance is amazing.

“ _Cause I can't, I can't wait no more._ ” Okay, now his voice definitely sounds whiny. He kinds of want to slap himself. “ _I'm on the edge with no control._ ”

He’s nearing to the out chorus of the song and he almost wishes it never ends just so that Keith can keep looking at him the way he is now. He takes a breath and gives the last line his fucking all — _'Cause I'm so into you, into you, into you_ —ratcheting it up higher, but making sure he’s still pitch perfect, until the song finally ends.

He barely hears the applause and the rush of comments from his sisters. He makes a beeline for Keith, still out of breath, his skin prickling with sweat and adrenaline.

“So?” Lance asks breathlessly. Alliana is buzzing and circling around Lance’s legs. “What did you think?”

Keith stands up abruptly, his eyes on the ground. “Can you show me where the restroom is?”

Lance feels his stomach plummet. Did Keith not like it, then? “Oh. Um. You don’t remember? It’s just across—”

“Lance.” Keith looks up, and Lance nearly melts with the look Keith gives him. “ _Can you show me where the restroom is._ ”

“Oh,” he breathes. “Yeah, we can—”

Keith doesn’t wait for an answer this time, just grabs Lance’s hand and drags him inside.

“We’ll be back,” Lance says weakly to no one in particular. The younger ones don’t pay him attention, but his mom and Ate Paulie, along with Pidge and Hunk, are looking at them with amused expressions. “I’ll just. Uh. Show Keith where the restroom is.”

Sure enough, Keith knows the way to the bathroom, since it’s just across the guest bedroom. But for the first time in forever, Lance has no idea what to say, so they’re both quiet as they walk along the hallway, with only the muted sound of a new song in the background. It sounds like Michael Jackson, so it’s probably Lolo Tommy singing next.  

Keith nudges him inside the bathroom, locks the door, and pushes Lance against it, wrapping his right hand around Lance’s nape to pull him down for a hard kiss. A small gasp escapes Lance, and Keith takes this as an invitation to lick his lower lip. And Keith kisses the way he looked at Lance—with wonder, intensity, and desperation. Lance puts his arms over Keith’s shoulders and tangles his fingers over his boyfriend’s stupid mullet. He grinds his hips against Keith’s, whining at how the layers of clothing are literally cockblocking him. Keith tightens his grip on Lance’s nape, and oh God, Lance loves that, makes him gasp again and bare his throat for Keith.

Keith tears away from Lance, breathing heavily. “You are the most _ridiculous_ —” He doesn’t finish his sentence, nipping at the corner of Lance’s jaw, his left hand a hot and pressing point of contact on Lance’s waist.

Lance manages a smirk, despite how he aches and wants and needs. “If I knew all it took was Ariana Grande, I’d have sang you a little tune ages ago.”

“It wasn’t the song.” Keith lowers his head to Lance’s throat and sucks hot, wet kisses on his skin. Lance lets out an embarrassing sound. “It was you.”

Lance presses his nose against Keith’s neck and takes a luxurious, deep inhale. He doesn’t know why, but the faint smell of the sea and sand that’s starting to cling to Keith’s scent—clean sweat, soap, and smoke— revs Lance up even more. “But you liked the song, right,” Lance says absently, tugging gently on his Keith’s hair and resuming the slow roll of his hips. His breath catches when he feels how hard Keith is against him.

Keith laughs, his eyes dark and his lips swollen. “Lance,” Keith murmurs back, removing his other hand from under Lance’s shirt to cup his jaw. “Shut up.”

After having so many stolen moments with Keith in the museum, Lance is familiar with this, with the way they cling to each other as they kiss. The way his hands smooth over Keith’s bare arms and back as he sucks against Keith’s tongue. The way Keith’s fingers knead Lance’s ass over his board shorts like he wants to pick him up and just _wreck_ him.

Lance doesn’t realize he’s moaning until Keith presses a hand over his mouth and fuck if that isn’t hot either. “Lance,” Keith hisses, his face flushed. “They’re going to hear you.”

Lance twists his fingers with the strings on Keith’s shorts. “Keith, _please._ ” And he doesn’t care that his voice is muffled against Keith’s palm, doesn’t care that his family is just outside. “Want you so much.”

And maybe his voice isn’t that muffled because Keith groans, pressing his forehead against Lance’s. He removes his hand from against Lance’s mouth and undoes Lance’s shorts until it puddles to the floor. Lance’s breath is uneven as he fumbles with the ties on Keith’s shorts, and when he pulls it down with shaking fingers—

“Oh my God,” Lance snaps his finger against Keith’s elastic waistband. He licks his lips when he sees the sizeable bulge that’s practically molded by Keith’s underwear. “Black trunks? Seriously?”

“What’s wrong with them?” Keith mutters, his eyes also trained downwards on Lance’s white briefs.

“It’s something I see models wear on fucking billboards, that’s what! Also, I seriously think you need to get them a size bigger because— oh fuck,” Lance gasps when Keith takes out Lance’s dick out of his underwear without preamble and just starts moving in slow and firm strokes, using Lance’s precome as slick. And Keith’s hand is wet, warm and strong, his fingertips callused. Seeing Keith’s long, slim fingers wrapped around Lance’s dick is making his brain short circuit. Lance digs his fingers in Keith’s shoulders, his knees almost buckling when Keith twists his hand at the head and rubs his thumb at the slit. “ _Putang ina_ , I can’t, please, Keith, _please_.”

Keith curses under his breath and lets go of Lance, much to Lance’s dismay. And Lance barely registers Keith pulling his own briefs down before Keith holds both of their dicks together, his fingers barely meeting as he curls his hand. Lance inhales sharply, his head thumping back against the door. “Oh God, _Keith._ ”

Keith leans forward, pressing his face over Lance’s throat, his breath heavy and wet on Lance’s skin. He gasps when Lance puts his hand over Keith's, their fingers overlapping over their cocks. And fuck, he is a _genius;_ Lance twists his hips helplessly at the double assault of Keith’s cock dragging against his and the tight grip of their hands.

Lance doesn’t even know where to look first because his boyfriend is a fucking visual feast and he just wants to gorge. Lance loves the way Keith’s hair is starting to stick to his neck, beads of sweat slowly rolling down his temple and clenched jaw. He loves the way Keith’s wrist snaps as he grips their cocks together; loves how Keith’s dick is practically pink in complexion compared to Lance’s darker coloring; loves how Keith is slightly shorter than Lance but is definitely, deliciously thicker. Lance slides his other hand from Keith’s shoulder to his stomach, pushing up Keith’s shirt so Lance can see his muscles moving as Keith thrusts against Lance.

And Lance tries to take in all of this with wide eyes because next time, they’re doing this on a bed when they have all the time and privacy in the world. When Lance can touch Keith all over and learn his body and when Keith can just fucking open him and make space for himself inside Lance, because Lance just _knows_ they fit, they fit that way and he wants to see it, feel it.

“God _damn it,_ Lance, the things that come out of your mouth,” Keith moans, lifting his head from Lance’s neck, his pupils blown and his cheeks red. And Lance didn’t even know he was _saying any of those things out loud_. But before he can apologize—for what, he doesn't know—Keith brushes his thumb over Lance’s lips, his face still lit with that amazed and desperate expression.

Keith crowds him further back until there’s barely any space for them to move, pinning Lance against the door. Lance hooks his leg around Keith’s hip and pulls him even closer. When Keith starts stroking faster, his grip tighter under Lance’s hand, Lance arches his back and curls his toes. “Keith _,_ I’m gonna, _konti pa,_ so close, please, please.”

Keith shushes Lance with an almost chaste press of his lips at the corner of Lance’s open mouth and says, “ _Lance_ ” in the most reverent voice. He does a little twist of his hand, and that was it. That’s all she wrote.

Lance shudders forward on Keith’s shoulder, his hips bucking as his come spurts over their fingers. Lance can hear himself breathing harshly, almost like he’s sobbing. Keith is still moving his hand over their cocks with short and tight strokes and it fucking hurts because Lance is already soft and sensitive, but he doesn’t want it to ever stop. He moans when Keith freezes and bites down on Lance’s shoulder, a dull pain since his shirt is shielding his skin from Keith’s teeth.

They’re both quiet except for their panting breaths, their combined come wet and sticky on their hands. Keith kisses the corner of Lance’s lips before pulling away to tug off a roll of tissue from the holder. When they pulls up their shorts after wiping themselves clean and washing their hands, Lance leans back against the door, trying to commit to memory everything that just happened.

Lance doesn’t realize his eyes are closed until Keith tilts his jaw up to kiss his eyelids. “You okay?” Keith’s voice is raspy and low and Lance wants to wrap it around himself and just curl up on bed.

Lance keeps his eyes closed and nuzzles against Keith’s neck under his ear. “‘Course I am,” he mumbles and gives a thumbs up. “Great orgasm.”

Keith laughs softly and curls an arm around Lance’s waist. He commits this to memory: the warmth of Keith’s breath over his head, the cool touch of Keith’s fingers on his skin, the way Keith’s scent seems to wrap around Lance.

Lance doesn’t know how long they stay like that, wrapped up in each other’s arms with the occasional slow kiss. But they both jump apart when they hear a quick rap on the door.

“Please be decent before you open the door,” Pidge says in a long-suffering voice.

Lance swings the door open with his arms outstretched, a grin plastered on his face. Pidge has her hand over her eyes, but she does peek between her fingers when she hears the door open. “You only wish you could see this hot bod, Pidgeon.”

Pidge wrinkles her nose at Lance. “Grandpa Tommy’s done so it’s Keith’s turn. Hunk’s distracting the Macalinos with his knock knock jokes but it’s only a matter of time before one of them comes to get you guys.” She pauses. “And can you _please_ spray Febreze before leaving? It smells like sex in here. Hunk and I have to use this bathroom too, you know.”

Lance hears Keith sputtering behind him. “How would you know what sex smells like?” Lance demands.

Pidge stares at him disdainfully. “I have an older brother,” she says simply, as if this answers everything. “There’s a reason I don’t go in his room.”

Before Lance could even formulate an answer, Pidge flounces off.  

Lance glances back at Keith, who’s completely red-faced. “Do we really smell like sex?” Lance asks incredulously. All he can smell is Keith's scent, and yeah, it's definitely sexy, but he wouldn't outright say it  _smells like sex._

Keith bites his lip like he’s trying to hold back a smile. “Let’s just spray the bathroom,” he answers instead. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Filipino translations:  
> Putang ina - Son of a bitch  
> konti pa - just a little more
> 
> 2\. Sorry we skipped over Lolo Tommy’s karaoke song! But it was either Lolo Tommy or Klance’s quickie in the bathroom.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith finally sings and then (tangentially) loses his cool.

They’re both walking down the hallway when Lance stops and suddenly remembers something. “Did you see my score?” he asks Keith. “I forgot to take a look before we… uh. Left.”

Keith smiles, lacing his fingers with Lance’s. And Lance’s heart lurches because Keith looks so relaxed, his shoulders loose and his face open and happy. He looks like he's about to start swinging their linked hands. “99,” Keith answers.

Lance grins and whoops, smacking a wet kiss on Keith's cheek. “I mean, a perfect score would’ve been sweet, but that’s cool too.”

Keith laughs. “You sounded amazing. But Amy said that you’d have gotten a 100 if you had picked a song with less high notes.”

Lance shrugs and swings their hands together, because he knows deep down that Keith wants to do it. He’s doing him a favor, basically. “Eh. I got what I wanted.” He waggles his eyebrows at Keith, who just rolls his eyes at him.  
  
When they get back out the pavilion and towards their bench, Alliana zooms in on them. “Are you ready for your turn in the spotlight, _Kuya_ Keith?” She asks.

At that, Keith grimaces. “I mean, I’ll try my best?” He smiles self-deprecatingly. “I figure everyone on our team got high enough scores that mine won’t matter so much if it sucks.”  
  
“The trick is to imagine everyone in their underwear,” Amy says in an obnoxiously knowing voice. “Then you have the upper hand.”

Lance frowns. “Is that why you always look like you’re about to crack up whenever you look at us?”

Amy just smiles beatifically and starts humming _Young and Beautiful_.

“Bet cracking up is the last thing Keith wants to do when he imagines Lance in his underwear,” Pidge mutters darkly.

Alliana, of course, latches onto that little tidbit. “Why?” She demands to know. “What does _Kuya_ Keith want to do if he—”

“Anyway.” Lance says loudly over Amy’s giggling. He sees Pidge smirking and Keith failing to keep the horrified look off his face. “It’s Keith’s turn. C’mon, babe.”

Lance drags Keith to the front and gets the mic. “ _I’m Still Here_ by Goo Goo Dolls.” He hands the mic to Keith and winks at him. “Break a leg,” he adds before giving him a wet kiss on the cheek.

Keith clears his throat, which everyone hears since he’s holding the mic near his lips. He hunches his shoulders when the sound echoes.

Lance bites his lips before clapping his hands. “Go, Keith!” He cheers, and Amy follows suit after glancing at him. Not to be undone, Alliana stands on the bench and claps her hands over her head.

By the time everyone is applauding, including the other group where Hunk is whistling, Keith is smiling and ducking his head. Lance sees him slip into Concentration Mode; Keith narrows his eyes at the screen, straightens his shoulders, and wields the mic like a weapon. Lance stops clapping and tucks his hands under his butt to keep from grabbing Keith and cuddling the hell out of him.

“ _I am a question to the world_.” Keith’s voice is low and steady, almost soothing. “ _Not an answer to be heard_.”

Lance tears his eyes away from Keith when Amy leans her head against him while hugging her knees to her chest. He tries to hide his surprise even as he slings his arm around her shoulders. Amy’s at the stage where she thinks it’s embarrassing for him and Ate Paulie to be overly affectionate with her, so it’s been a long time since she let him hug her in public.

He remembers the way she grimaces when his mom, Ate Paulie, and Lance always kiss her and the two younger kids goodbye before they run off to the bus on the way to school. Or when he and Amy have to do the errands together, like buying the groceries or driving to the car wash, Amy would always try to distance herself when Lance gives her noogies or puts his arms around her while commenting about how the car wash looks like a mechanical monster hungry for the automobiles it’s forced to clean every day and it’s really just waiting for the right moment until it can rule the entire world.

It’s practically his God given responsibility as her older brother to embarrass her. It’s worth it every time he sees her trying to hold back a laugh when she’s trying to glare him into shutting up.

“He sounds good,” she says eventually.

Lance laughs softly and turns his eyes back to Keith. “Didn’t know what I was expecting to hear, honestly,” he admits with a big grin. “But yeah, Keith is good at everything.”

“ _And you see the things they never see_.” Keith’s voice louder and stronger now, his shoulders a little more relaxed. “ _All you wanted I could be. Now you know me_ ,” He cuts a quick glance to Lance, like he can’t help himself, before turning back to the screen. “ _And I'm not afraid_.”

“He’s not what I was expecting,” Amy murmurs.

“What do you mean?”

“Quiet,” she answers promptly with a mischievous grin.

“Ha. Ha.” Lance stares at how Keith is slightly swaying to the music, the corners of his lips lifted even as he sings the lyrics. “Keith talks when he has something to say.” And Lance wishes Keith would say more and tell Lance if there’s a problem, but what can he do.  
  
Amy shakes her head. “I don’t mean it as a bad thing,” she says. “He’s handling the Macalino madness pretty well. He listens to what we all have to say. He even takes Alliana seriously. And maybe he’s just doing that ‘cos he wants to impress his boyfriend’s family. But when he… He has this face, when he listens to you.” She sighs. “Basically, you suck and I hope I get my own Keith, too.”

Lance blinks down at her. In the background, Keith’s voice unfailingly rise and fall with the notes of the song. Lance clears his throat and just says, “You’re pretty sharp for a fourteen year old, aren’t you.”

Amy gives him a bored look. “I’m an artist. I need to know how the world works.”

“Yeah? Tough. And like I told bumblebee, none of you are getting significant others until you’re 40.”

Amy scowls at him, looking uncannily like Alliana for a second. “That’s not—”

“Hush now,” Lance says serenely, patting Amy on the cheek even though she tries to slap his hand away. “My boyfriend is finishing his song.”

“ _I’m still here_ ,” Keith declares, his fingers laced together over the mic like he would in prayer. He tilts his head back until Lance can see the pale skin under his jaw. Lance thinks that is the equivalent of throwing his head back in abandon in Keith Land. “ _I’m. Still. Here._ ”

When the lyrics fade into the background, Keith lowers the mic and looks at them from under his hair. He doesn’t even spare a glance at the screen to look at his loading score.

Lance stands up and starts applauding. “Good job, babe!”

Everyone quickly follows, hooting and clapping for Keith. Keith’s eyes go round when Ate Paulie wolf-whistles. Their mom is shaking her head in exasperation, even as Lolo Tommy and Lola Adore laugh at their rowdy grandchildren.

Lance’s mom used to worry that their neighbors at the beach would report them for being loud and noisy late into the night. But Lolo Tommy always waved her worries away, saying that they’re the oldest and longest-standing residential place in the block, what are they going to say, really? Whenever Lance’s mom reminds Lolo Tommy that this isn’t the Philippines where you can karaoke in full volume until the wee hours, he just harrumphs and ambles away with the parting shot that they’ve never received a complaint anyway so what’s there to worry about?

So his mom stopped worrying and just basked in the Macalino noise.

“Oh my God,” Ate Paulie exclaims, stopping mid-whistle. “Are you serious.”

Everyone shifts their gaze from Lance’s very embarrassed and very red boyfriend to the screen behind him.

The score 97 blinks steadily on the screen.

Macalinos and co. descend into chaos.

“Lance! You freakin’ cheater,” Ate Paulie bellows, standing up from her seat with her hands on her hips. “You knew, didn’t you!”

“Now that's what I am talking about! Our wildcard member is a winner,” Amy crows, high-fiving Alliana. “We’ve definitely got this in the bag.”

“Are you kidding,” Pidge shouts, waving her hands and pushing her glasses up furiously. “I’ve been coming to this annual trip for almost five years and I’ve never gotten anything as high as 90 until _last year_.”

Hunk is just laughing at all of them from his corner of the bench.

“Lance, did you know Keith was a good singer before this trip?” His mom asked with a mock-frown.

Lance stretched his arms out, palms up. “I am innocent in all this. Keith didn’t tell me he had an alter ego as a rockstar. Sorry, guys.”

“Unbelievable.” Ate Paulie keeps shaking her head. Angel is at her big sister’s side, most likely whispering song suggestions to Ate Paulie that might turn the tide to them.

Lance’s grandparents are just staring at their crazy grandchildren with amused looks.

Meanwhile, Keith is shuffling casually to the side until he’s no longer front and center. He’s completely red down to his neck. If Lance got a dollar for every time Keith blushed today alone, he’d be a millionaire.

Lance hooks his arm around Keith’s hunched shoulders and leans down to whisper in his ear, “That was so freakin’ hot I wanna make out with you right now.”

Keith glances at him, looking pleased but still embarrassed. Even the corners of his eyes were crinkled with his smile. Lance wants to rub his thumb against the little bunched skin. “You always want to make out,” Keith points out. When Lance opens his mouth to respond, Keith adds, “Not now, Lance.”

Lance pouts. “How come you never told me you were a good singer?”

“I’m not,” Keith insists. “Beginner’s luck, I guess.”

“Must be all that not-so-hypothetical singing in the shower then,” Lance says with a wide grin.

Amy flutters beside Keith, she looks like she’s walking on clouds. “That was awesome, _Kuya_ Keith,” she said, smirking. “I’ve only ever seen _Ate_ Paulie that annoyed with _Kuya_ Lance. And she can’t even be mad at you because you’re a guest.”

Keith laughs, rubbing the back of his neck. “Thanks? I’m just glad I didn’t drag the team down.”

Pidge harrumphs from Lance’s other side, where Alliana is currently trying to curl herself between him and Pidge. “I still can’t believe you got a high score,” Pidge grumbles. “Unbelievable.”

Ate Paulie is marching towards the karaoke machine, her shoulders set. “ _Nothing Else Matters_ by Little Mix,” she says into the mic.

“ _Ate_ Paulie’s gonna need to get a 99 or a hundred to beat us,” Pidge says, her eyes going unfocused for a second as she mentally computes.

Amy smirks. “With how pissed she is, that’s definitely not gonna happen,” she says, touching knuckles with Lance when he raises his hand for a fist bump. She turns her eyes to Keith, that triumphant and satisfied expression still on her face. “ _Kuya_ Lance told us that you’re all gonna be space pilots. But are you sure you don’t want to be a musician instead? You can perform in intergalactic stages!”

Lance snorts, squeezing the arm wrapped around Keith’s shoulders. “No way. Me and Keith are destined to fly around the universe. Pidge and Hunk can be are faithful sidekicks!”

“You wish I were your sidekick,” Pidge mutters. “I’m smarter than you and Hunk and Keith combined.”

Amy rolls her eyes, her lips curled up in an exasperated smile. Lance glances at Keith, expecting a similar expression on his face.

But Keith stays silent while looking at his feet. Amy’s smile fades, and her eyes sharpen as she studies Keith. The silence dips into awkwardness, and Keith shifts until Lance’s arm falls away from his shoulder. He clears his throat. “Well. We don’t know if I am going to be a space pilot but. Um. yeah.”

Lance stares at Keith. “What do you mean? We always talk about being—”

Keith glances up at Lance, his eyes flashing. “ _You_ always talk about it.”

Lance recoils. And he hears Pidge’s quiet inhale behind him. He hasn’t heard Keith speak in that tone voice since the first day they met and argued with each other. “What do you mean? You could have said something if you didn’t actually want to be a space pilot,” Lance says tightly. “Instead of just letting me spout off what is apparently complete bullshit to you.”

“ _Kuya_ Lance.” Amy’s voice is sharp. Her eyes slip past him and lower meaningfully.

Lance looks down just in time to feel small fingers curl on top of his knee. “ _Kuya_?” Alliana says quietly, glancing at him and Keith. “Are you guys fighting?”

He clears his throat and pats her hand. “No, bumblebee. I’m sorry.”

Keith stands up abruptly, nodding in their general direction, without looking at any of them. “Excuse me. I’ll just go to the restroom.”

Lance wants to snap at him— _you just went to the restroom with me, remember?_ —but he bites his tongue and just watches Keith hurry inside the house.  
  
“Alliana, go play with _Lolo_ Tommy,” Amy says, mimicking Ate Paulie’s Big Sister voice.

“But why?” Alliana whines, tightening her grip on Lance’s knee. “This is my team, I want to stay here.”

Lance leans down and cups her nape to tilt her head up and kiss her forehead. Her skin smells like the sea and a hint of strawberry. “I’ll call you back, okay, bumblebee? Amy just wants to annoy me.”

“Oh,” Alliana wrinkles her nose. “Okay.” She zooms away and launches herself at their grandparents.

“So,” Amy says, turning sharp eyes at him. Her face reminds Lance of the shows they sometimes watch on Nat Geo, when the predator is stalking its prey and is just waiting for the right moment to pounce. “Does that happen often?”

Before Lance could deny anything, Pidge pipes up, “They fight but not like that.” She pokes Lance on the arm. “Why’d you attack him like that?”

“Me?” Lance exclaim. “You saw how he was! He didn’t even answer my question.”

Pidge tilts her head, the light reflecting against her glasses. “Maybe because you won’t let him get a word in edgewise.”

“I would if he’d _say something_.”

“Boys are so dumb,” Amy says in a bored voice, but still with those narrowed eyes at Lance.

Pidge snorts. “Tell me about it.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mama Macalino gives advice.

“So,” His mom says casually as she washes the dishes. “Keith.”

Lance sighs and sets down the dirty serving bowls. “What about him?” He picks up the clean stack of plates on the other side of the sink and starts drying them with a towel.

When she glances up at the window overlooking the pavilion, Lance follows her gaze. His grandparents had left for their room after the karaoke showdown, bidding a laughing goodnight to everyone. (Lance’s group won, since Ate Paulie only got a 98. She had snarled that she was definitely getting Keith on her team in the next rematch. No one had breathed a word of disagreement. But when she stomped out of the room, Amy, Lance, and Alliana sang _We Are the Champions_ and did their victory dance while Pidge and Keith looked on with bemusement.)

Lance’s younger sisters were still outside, cleaning up the table and transferring the leftovers in tupperware containers. And Pidge and Keith still had their heads bent close as they talked on the bench, where they’ve been sitting since Keith came out, reserved and quiet. Hunk had stayed with them until he decided to go inside to talk to Ate Paulie. When their three guests tried helping the Macalinos with the chores, his mom had just shooed them away, saying that guests aren’t allowed to do work in her household.

“He’s a quiet boy,” his mom finally says.

Lance looks at Keith again. His expression is closed off, though his lips were downturned, as he listens to whatever Pidge is passionately explaining to him. After a few minutes, he starts nodding slowly, as if begrudgingly agreeing with what she’s saying.

“Amy said the same.” Lance shrugs. “And like I told her, he talks when he has something to say.”

She hums at that and falls silent. They work quietly together for a few minutes, with his mom washing and rinsing and with Lance drying the plates and utensils and putting them back in their proper cupboards. Lance waits it out. His mom always gets super quiet when she’s turning over thoughts in her head.  

It reminds him of the day he came out to her. She'd studied him with the same intensity, like she was trying to read his mind and at the same time come up with answers to his unspoken thoughts. And when she finally said her piece, Lance had almost ( _almost_ , since it was just the two of them in his room and no one can dispute this) cried with how honest, and accepting, and just so fucking awesome his mom was.

“Are you being safe?” His mom asks abruptly.

Lance drops the spoons and forks with a clang. “ _Ma._ ”

“It's a valid question, Alejandro. I know how teenage boys work. And two teenage boys together _—_ ”

“ _Oh my God_.” Lance covers his red face with his hands. “Yes, we’re being safe.” They haven’t technically done anything that warrants a condom, but his mom didn’t need to know that.

She laughs at him, wiping her hands with a towel. “Good. Make sure it stays that way. Don’t let the happy chemicals of sex distract you from taking care of yourself.”

“Can we please be done with this conversation.”

“Ah, Lance,” She leans forward now and pecks him on his cheek. “I’ll let you off the hook. For now.”

He huffs and goes back to work. “But. What do you really think of him? Besides quiet.”

“I like him enough that I want you to bring him back again,” she says. She pauses and places a hand on his arm until Lance finally looks at her. “He may talk when he has something to say, but you need to learn how to listen to the things he doesn’t say either, if you’re serious about him.”

“What’s with the advice?” He asks cautiously.

“One, I’m your mom. It’s part of the job. Two, you think I can’t see the tension between you?” She says with a raised eyebrow.

Lance sighs. “Okay, whatever. But it’s nothing.”

She clicks her tongue. “ _Anak_ , you’ve never lied to yourself before. It’s one of the things I love most about you. Don’t start now.”

He can feel her studying him, so he fixes his eyes on the intricate designs of the plate in front of him. “I’m scared of what he’s _not_ saying. What if he...” Lance swallows. He doesn't even know how to end that sentence.

“That boy sang karaoke for you. I told you I want to get to know him more, yes? It’s because I want to bond with him over dinner about everything we love about you, annoying habits and all.” She takes the plates and utensils he's holding with a death grip and hip checks him. “Now go out there and clear the air with him so you can both enjoy the beach without all this needless teen angst.”

Lance wraps his arms around her and laughs a little wetly. “Love you, ma.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Filipino translation:  
> Anak - my child, or child  
> 2\. I'm so sorry for how short this is! But we're almost at the end so hang in there.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Space talk.

Pidge saves him from trying to awkwardly pull Keith away for a private conversation. She jumps up when she sees him and basically pushes Keith in his arms. “Hi Lance, Keith has something to say. You can pull your heads out of your asses inside the bedroom.” She narrows her eyes at them. “Don’t even think about desecrating it. You won’t like what I’ll do.”

Keith is glaring at her, but since he’s not saying anything, Lance takes that to mean that they _do_ need to talk and pull their heads out of their asses.

When Lance tugs Keith inside, Keith just curls his fingers around Lance’s hand.

Lance doesn’t waste time to let the awkward silence settle around the room like a heavy, uncomfortable weight. “I know I can be a bit much and I’ve been trying not to be… you know. But I’ll try harder! I'll talk less, and listen more, even when you're not speaking and even when you _should_ be speaking, since I can't tell what you think sometimes. Is it because I've been too pushy or touchy? Just tell me _—_ ”

“Lance,” Keith says slowly like his name has more than one syllable. He’s also looking at him like Lance has suddenly grown three heads. “What the hell are you talking about.”

He twists his fingers on the hem of his shirt. “I’m sorry if I’ve been too clingy,” he mumbles. “If I’ve made you uncomfortable.”

“Lance, no, what?” Keith reaches out to him and wraps his hands around Lance’s fidgeting hands. “If anything, I thought _I_ was making you uncomfortable. But that’s not why Pidge had to tell me to talk to you.”

Lance frowns. “It’s not?”

“No.” Keith takes a deep breath. “I’ve been feeling like shit about the three of you going to space academy while I still have a year of school left. And I. I’m just scared I won’t get in when it’s time for me to apply.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” That is the question of the hour, apparently. Lance tugs his hands away to hold Keith’s face and force his boyfriend to look at him. “You’re gonna be an awesome pilot and the academy’s going to be begging to take you after your exam.”

Keith smiles wryly. “You’re my boyfriend, you’re required to say that.”

“I’m not required to say shit, _ano ba,_ ” Lance retorts. “I’ve never lied to you, and I _hate_ that you’re making me say this, but you’ll probably be the best pilot in our batch. You know more about dogfighting than any of us, and you haven’t even ridden a spacecraft yet. You have magic fingers with engines. You ride Red like you’re about to take flight any second. You were _born_ to fly.”

Keith presses his lips to a thin line. But Lance can see the tension slowly leaving his shoulders.

“Hey,” Lance says forcefully, until Keith glares back at him. “In the _unlikely_ event you don’t get into the space academy, you can still apply to other pilot schools. Either way, the four of us are exploring the galaxy together. Even if we have to pilot... I don’t know. Space cat robots or something.”

Keith huffs out a laugh and leans forward until their foreheads are touching. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a moody asshole."

“Pidge’s words?”

“Yeah.”

They both laugh this time and Lance shuffles closer until his nose is buried in the crook of Keith’s neck and shoulder. Sweat, soap, smoke, and sea. Lance takes a lungful and closes his eyes. He shudders when Keith puts a warm hand on his nape.

“This is one of the things I love most about you, you know,” Keith says conversationally. “Touch anchors you.”

Lance nuzzles closer and wraps his arms around Keith’s waist. “‘M scared it might be too much.”

“Let me be the judge of that.” Keith places his other hand on Lance’s back under his shirt, and Lance almost purrs. “I’ll tell you when it’s too much.”

“Promise?”

Keith pulls back just so Lance can see him roll his eyes. Asshole. “Promise.” Keith tightens his hold on Lance’s nape and kisses the gasp from his lips.

Hunk and Pidge find them on the bottom bunk an hour later with Lance straddling Keith’s lap.

His mom finds them like this: Lance manfully telling/complaining to Keith about the pain from the shoe Pidge threw at the back of his head; Keith glaring at Pidge while informing her that _nothing_ happened; Pidge bitching at Keith about how finding them shoving their tongues down each other’s throats is totally not _nothing_ ; and Hunk whining that he will never get _that_ image out of his head.

They’re shooed out of the house and instructed only to come back inside when they’re heading to bed. This is so, his mom explains to them while laughing, the seniors and the babies in the house can go to sleep in peace without all their ruckus.

Lance smacks a wet kiss on her cheek in thanks, for the beach towels she hands him and for everything else.

*

Even with the towel, Lance can still feel the coolness of the sand against his skin. He shifts until his shoulder is pressed against Keith’s and, like his three best friends, looks up.

Sometimes Lance isn’t sure if he believes in God. He still goes to Mass every Sunday with his family, but he doesn’t like how he has more questions after Father Gomez’s homily than before coming in church, how there are some beliefs he can never agree with, and how everything is conveniently black and white and just disregards all the painful and uncomfortable shades of gray.

But when Lance looks up, he finds himself thinking: maybe.

It’s a gradient of black, blue, and deep violet, so indiscernible that it’s understandable why people think the night sky is black at first glance. But Lance has made it a science and an art to look up and he knows that it's only the tiniest facet of Space and Beyond.

Best of all, the stars are more vividly bright out here than in the city. And it looks like someone took a bucket of stars and just splashed the entire sky with it.

“Can you imagine,” Pidge murmurs. Her eyes are unblinking behind those big glasses, her hair ruffling from the breeze. “Can you imagine what’s out there?”

“Aliens.” Hunk’s voice is equal parts terrified and excited.

Lance closes his eyes. In his mind, he can still see those tiny bursts of light against an endless dark canvas stars. “Galaxies and planets.” His lips curl when he feels Keith twine their fingers together.

" _Exploring_ those galaxies and planets. Together.”

Everyone seems to take Keith’s words as a sacred vow, or a formal wish sent out to be granted by the universe, because they all stay silent after that. Just listening to each other’s breaths and the gentle sound of the waves against the shore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Filipino Translation  
> Ano ba: I don't quite know how to translate this. Maybe the closest is: what even? haha  
> Basically, it's like an expression of irritation, exasperation, frustration, or all of the above - depending on the tone of voice used. (In Lance's case, it was definitely all of the above. lol)
> 
> 2\. Dogfighting is not dogs literally fighting! It's a pilot term I discovered during my haphazard research. It's aerial close combat, if I understood correctly. :D


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> B&B stands for Breakfast & Beach.

Lance hears soft whispers and giggles before he even opens his eyes. He yawns and blinks. Then frowns when he hears more giggles before they’re shushed. Lance shifts his head until he’s leaning on the edge of his pillow.

Alliana is sitting cross-legged beside Keith, expertly braiding his hair. Keith barely looks awake, but his expression is mostly bemused. On the other side, Pidge is a camouflaged lump under her blankets on the top bunk, while Hunk is starfished on his bed, snoring loudly.

“If you’re gonna grow your hair out, you have to make sure to brush it every morning and every night,” Alliana informs Keith. Then she adds, in a quiet whisper like a confession, “Your hair is very soft.”

Lance snorts and holds back another one when they both look up at him. “Bumblebee, please leave Keith alone. It’s early and he hasn’t even brushed his teeth yet.”

“Yes, he did,” she says smugly. “I made him go with me this morning, so we _both_ brushed our teeths.”

“Teeth, not teeths,” Lance says automatically. Jeez, no wonder Keith looks so sleepy. “Now, scat. Or I’ll tell Mom you woke up a guest.”

She scowls at him, but drops the tiny braid she was working on and flounces out of the room without another word.

Lance sighs. “Sorry about that.”

Keith smiles up at him sleepily. And Lance feels his heart beat double time at how soft and rumpled Keith looks. There are pillow creases on his right cheek, and the left side of his hair is mixed with braids.

“‘s’okay,” Keith says around a yawn. “It was fun.”

This time Lance is the one scowling. “What did she tell you?”

Keith’s expression turns mischievous. “She told me where she learned how to wake people up.”

“Oh my God.” Lance buries his face in his pillow before looking back down at Keith. “She stuck her finger in your ear?”

“Wet with saliva, yeah,” Keith answers dryly.

“I’m gonna kill her.”

“Why bother, you’re the one who taught her.”

That’s it. Lance flings off his blanket and quickly climbs down the ladder. He jumps in Keith’s bed and goes under the blankets.

Keith blinks at him slowly. “For someone who just woke up, those were some pretty fast moves, Macalino.”

Lance pushes forward until Keith leans back and shares pillow space for his head. “Shut up.” He smiles against Keith’s collarbone when Keith jumps from Lance pressing his toes against his legs.

“Why the hell are your feet so cold?” Keith complains.

“I need hugs to warm up.”

“Your feet are on the other end of your body, lamebrain.”

“And I guess I have poor circulation.” Since Keith can’t take the not-subtle-hint — who’s the lamebrain now? — Lance places an arm over Keith’s chest and slings his leg over Keith’s thigh.

Finally, his boyfriend gets with the program and runs his fingers over Lance’s hair, his other hand a warm weight over Lance’s hip.

“Hi.” Keith smiles.

Lance curls his toes. He’s so freaking happy he can’t stand it. “Hi, babe.” He beams back. “Good morning.”

“If you two are done being disgustingly sweet to each other,” Pidge croaks out, her voice muffled from all the blankets still over her head. “Can you please check if there’s breakfast?”

Keith snickers when Lance rolls his eyes violently. “BRB,” he mumbles and presses a kiss to the corner of Keith’s lips.

*

But Lance wasn’t able to go back after going out because, as usual, the breakfast process is Chaos. Their family is composed of early risers, with the exception of Amy, who thinks that the day starts at ten in the morning, at the very least.

So by the time his friends shuffle out of the room, his mom is cooking eggs, daing na bangus, and bacon with Ate Paulie frying the leftover rice from last night while Angel is setting the table. Lolo Tommy is reading the newspaper with his cup of coffee, while Lola Adore braided Alliana’s hair.

“Good morning,” Lance waves his tongs while waiting  for the pandesal to heat up in the toaster _._ “Sorry I wasn’t able to get you. Things got crazy.”

Hunk slaps him on the back. “With how the food smells, no need for apologies, Lance.”

“Good morning,” His mom greets them with a big smile. “Come over the table so we can eat.”

After Alliana says grace (which is her daily lunch prayer in school), everyone gets food before finding a spot. Ate Paulie, Lolo Tommy, and Amy sit on the couch, with their plates on their laps. His mom and Lola Adore sit on each end of the table. Hunk, Pidge, and Alliana sit on one side while Lance, Keith, and Angel sit on the other.

“Did you sleep well last night?” Lola Adore asked them, peering at them over her glasses. Wispy strands of silver hair are curling against her cheek.

“Yes, Grandma Adore,” Pidge says around a mouthful of pandesal _._ “Just had to make sure we all slept first before Hunk did.”

“Still snoring, Hunk?” Lolo Tommy asks. “You should get that checked. A young man your age, it might be a condition.”

Lance and Pidge snicker against their glasses of orange juice while Hunk tries to make himself smaller in his chair.  

“How’s the food, Keith?” His mom asked. She’s taking a sip of her coffee, but Lance can tell she’s smiling with the crinkles around her eyes and the dimple on her cheek.

Lance glances at Keith’s plate. There’s a circle of bangus and bacon around a mound of sinangag rice with a runny sunny side up egg on top.

“Um.” Keith swallows his food before answering. “Everything is delicious. The rice is like garlic rice.  But better. Thank you.”

“Garlic rice but better,” Pidge echoes. “Exactly.” She high fives Alliana for this enlightening revelation.

His mom laughs. “I’m glad you all like it. Do you want more rice? Don’t be shy, there’s more. Hunk, you can’t eat _bangus_ and egg without _sinangag_ or _pandesal._ Here, take this.”

By the time they waddle out of their chairs, the serving plates and bowls were spick and span, they’d eaten everything clean under his mom’s watchful gaze.

Lance swaggers up to Ate Paulie and elbows her. When she keeps on ignoring him by staring a hole at her phone, he clears his throat and says magnanimously, “As the awesome winner of the karaoke showdown, I just want to gently remind you to segregate the trash when you take it out.”

“If you don’t stop jabbing me with your elbow, I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

“I’m an awesome _brother_ , too, so I’ll give you a surgical mask. The smell can get pretty overpowering, you know what I mean?” Lance, of course, digs his elbow even more.

Before he could do a mic drop and flee the scene, Ate Paulie calmly sets her phone down and has his head trapped under her arm in a second, vengefully giving him a noogie. Lance is taller than her, but his sister has a black belt in judo. Hell, she was the one who taught him how to defend himself.

This devolves into his three younger sisters chanting “Fight! Fight!” while Hunk and Pidge are howling with laughter and taking videos of Lance’s struggles. Ate Paulie only lets up when their mom says in an eerily soft voice to please behave and pretend to be civilized human beings, there are guests in the house. The Macalinos all know that tone of voice, so they casually disperse from the dining room.

Hunk and Pidge are still snickering when Lance walks to them, rubbing his neck from Ate Paulie’s stranglehold. “If I get bruises, you’re so paying for my concealer,” Lance growls at Ate Paulie, who’s gone back to fiddling with her phone.

She looks up and bares her teeth at him. “Bite me.”

“Alejandro. Apolinaria. Shut up and separate into different corners of the room please.”

Ate Paulie rolls her eyes and pointedly takes the garbage bag before walking out. Lance glares at her smug back before turning at his friends. “I hate you both,” he informs them. “Where’d you hide Keith?”

“Think he went back to our room,” Hunk answers around a mouthful of pandesal.

Lance walks back down the hall, the outraged and delighted shrieks of his sisters growing fainter the closer he was to the guest room.

He wasn’t entirely surprised when he finds Keith staring into space and sitting at the corner of his bed near the wall.

“Hey,” Lance says softly. Keith looks up, tensing for a second before he realizes it’s Lance. “Want me to get you later?”

Keith opens his mouth, before closing it again. “I’m sorry. It’s just, I’m not used to—”

Lance closes the door behind him and sits on the foot of the bed, making sure not to crowd Keith. “Hey, no, it’s okay. My family can be loco. I’m impressed you lasted this long.”

Keith laughs weakly. “They’re all a little bit like you, so,” he shrugs. “It’s nice to be around them. I just need… quiet.”

“No problemo.” He grins and finger guns at him. “We’ll be at the beach.”

“Lance.” And his name sounds like a sigh of relief. “Thanks.”

Lance rolls his eyes and stands up, pretending to dust off his shorts. “Are you kidding? This is the least I could do.”

He’s surprised when Keith suddenly jumps from his corner and hugs Lance. “Love you, lamebrain.”

And Lance is not crying, he’s _not._ It’s just. Hearing it makes Lance realize that it’s the first time Keith actually says it.

Lance clears his throat once. Then twice. He closes his eyes and buries his nose against Keith’s neck. “Love you too, babe,” he says against Keith’s collarbone.

Keith pulls back and gently shoves him to the door. “I’ll catch up with you guys.”

*

“So,” Ate Paulie says casually. Her voice sounds eerily like how their mom opened the Keith Conversation last night.

Lance looks up warily from where he was sitting with Angel on the sand. They were sorting the good and bad seashells Angel has collected so far. His younger sister had very exacting standards so the bad pile is considerably bigger than the good one.

“So?” Lance shoots back, equally fake-casual.

“You and Keith seem better.”

“They were kissing a lot before mom made them go outside last night,” Angel contributes unhelpfully before focusing back on her sea shells.

Ate Paulie smirks, her sunglasses unable to hide the smug look on her face. “I heard.”

Amy snickers from beside Ate Paulie, all the while continuing scrolling on her phone. Lance rolls his eyes. He stares out at the shore, where Pidge and Hunk are dutifully lugging around buckets of sand for Alliana’s castles. His youngest sister has her hands on her hips, while she gives out instructions. The word _moat_  and _mermaid princess fortress_ were repeated frequently.

“So what happened?” Ate Paulie asks finally, when Lance keeps quiet.

He shrugs. “We were both being dumb. So we talked.”

Amy takes a moment to pause her scrolling and stares at him. “The one time we ask you for details is when you decide to clam up?” She snorts. “Typical.”

“Boys are generally dumb,” Ate Paulie agrees. “But what, specifically, were you being dumb about?”

Lance grimaces and lies down on the towel beside Ate Paulie. “I thought I was being too needy. And clingy.”

Ate Paulie looks over her sunglasses with sharp eyes. “ _Sinabi niya yun_?” she demanded.

“No,” he assures. “No, _sabi niya_ …he liked it.”

“Obviously,” Amy mutters.

“Shut up, popstar. Anyway, he was kind of sad and scared about us going to space academy ahead  of him. So I told him,” Lance shrugs helplessly. He didn’t know why he was having a hard time explaining himself. Maybe because those moments were private and he wasn’t really ready to share it yet. “We were going to fly to space together, no matter what.”

This time, all three of them stare at him. Lance leans up on his elbows and glares back. “What?”

“You’re really serious about him, aren’t you.” Ate Paulie says softly, and it’s not a question.

Lance swallows. “ _Oo_. _Mahal ko yung_ stupid mullet-head _na yun_. Wasn’t it obvious?”

“How do you picture Keith when you’re in space together?” Amy asks abruptly.

“I don’t know, we’re co-pilots?” Lance answers bemusedly. There’s no other answer, Keith was made to fly. And it’s not as if Lance is giving up the wheel, either.

“Lance, in all the time I’ve heard you talk about going to space, it’s always been about how _you_ were going to fly there,” Ate Paulie says. “Like, even Pidge and Hunk knew that you were their pilot in your little crew.”

“Is Kuya Keith a really good flyer?” Angel asks curiously.

“We haven’t flown yet, sweetpea, so I wouldn’t know,” Lance says automatically. Then suddenly he feels a rush of tingling in his body, like his skin is waking up. A smile slowly spreads across his face. “But I’m freaking excited to find out.”

“Lance?”

They all look up. Keith is standing uncertainly at the door of the pavilion. He has a towel slung across his neck, and he’s wearing those ridiculous board shorts with floral patterns again. There’s a smudge of sun block just under his jaw.

“Wanna go for a swim?”

Lance’s smile widens. Keith smiles back, as if that’s the only way to respond to Lance. That tingling feeling swirls in his chest. Lance leaps up from where he’s lying down, showering sand over his sisters, their shrieks background noise.

“Last one to the sea goes first on karaoke tonight!” He calls over his shoulder while running for the shore.

He hears Keith laugh before he chases after Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Filipino Translations: Food  
> Sinangag - usually leftover rice from the night before that’s heated/fried on the pan with garlic and salt.  
> Daing na bangus - fried milkfish that’s marinated in vinegar.  
> Pandesal - the aforementioned are all quintessential Filipino breakfast foods, but THIS is The Quintessential Filipino Breakfast Food. Google would say it is just a bread roll found in the Philippines. But it’s also the source of life and softness and goodness in the world. It also goes with anything! Savory fillings like sardines and corned beef and bacon; and sweet spreads like strawberry jam, nutella, peanut butter. basically, Pandesal Is Everything.
> 
> 2\. Filipino Translations: Ate Paulie and Lance conversation  
> Sinabi niya yun? - He/she said that? (Niya is a gender-neutral pronoun and I love it to bits)  
> Sabi niya... - He/she said...  
> Oo. (Yes.) Mahal ko yung stupid mullet-head na yun. (I love that stupid mullet-head.)
> 
> 3\. The End  
> Thanks so much for reading this very self-indulgent fic till the end!


End file.
